Extraction of citric acid from aqueous solutions with Alamine 336: equilibrium and kinetics

Abstract

Abstract Citric acid is one of the organic acids for which the world market is growing every year. This article describes equilibria and kinetic studies for the extraction of citric acid by Alamine 336 with methyl‐iso‐butylketone (MIBK) as diluent. The theory of extraction accompanied by a chemical reaction has been used to obtain the intrinsic kinetics of extraction of citric acid by Alamine 336 in MIBK. The reaction has been found to be first order in both Alamine 336 and citric acid with a rate constant of 0.013 m 3 kmol −1 s −1 . Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry