Evaluation of 4-chlorophenol extraction from aqueous solution by kerosene

Phenolic compounds are among of the important chemicals having uses in production of several important industrial chemicals such as pesticides, explosives, drugs and dyes, synthetic fibers such as nylon, epoxy resin precursors such as bisphenol-A, etc. The production of phenolic compounds produces hazardous wastes and wastewaters. Biological treatment (activated sludge) of these wastewaters is difficult because of anti-biological properties of phenols so,other treatment processes should be considered such as solvent extraction, chemical oxidation, photo-catalytic oxidation, etc. In this paper the behavior of 4-chlorophenol during the extraction from aqueous solutions using kerosene as solvent was studied. The influence of the initial concentration of phenol in aqueous phase (100-500 ppm), pH (1-6) and temperature (20–50 ○C) was investigated. In equilibrium extraction of 4-chlorophenol with kerosene was observed that the extraction efficiency increases with increasing temperature. Experimental results showed that as the pH of the feed solution decreases, the extraction efficiency increases that is because of that in the acidic solutions all of the phenol present in solution are in its molecular form and have the capability to extract. The effect of concentration on the extraction efficiency is low.