Parametric Study of Lactic Acid Extraction Using Tri-N-Octyl Amine and Hexane through Emulsion Liquid Membrane

In this current research work, a detailed parametric study has been reported for the Lactic Acid (LA) extraction from the aqueous solution through Emulsion Liquid Membrane (ELM). A designed ELM loaded with tri-n-octyl amine (as a carrier), oleyl alcohol (as a membrane modifier), cyclohexanone (to reduce water co-transportation), hexane (as a diluent), sodium carbonate (as an internal stripping phase reagent), and span 80 (as an emulsifying agent) was formulated and prepared through mechanical agitation mode. The effect of operating conditions of various process parameters affecting the LA extraction efficiency through ELM were examined and elucidated in detail. The results have shown that more than 95±1.5% of LA were successfully extracted within 20 min at the optimum conditions of 0.05 [M] LA concentration, 2000 rpm emulsification speed, 2.0 (v/v) treat ratio, 4% (v/v) span 80 concentration, 1.0 (v/v) phase ratio, 200 rpm stirring speed, 0.25 [M] stripping phase concentration ( ), 2% (v/v) cyclohexanone, 1 [N] sulphuric acid concentration, and TOA concentration: 10 %(v/v). Hence, it could be concluded that these optimized ELM constituents as well as optimized ranges of various desired process parameters may be considered for efficient ELM formulation and LA extraction.