Recovery of boron from wastewater using 2, 2, 4-trimethyl-1,3-pentanediol in carbon tetrachloride

Abstract

A process was developed to recover boron from the waste stream of liquid crystal display (LCD) industry using 2,2,4-trimethyl-1,3-pentanediol dissolved in carbon tetrachloride as an extractant. Several parameters such as contact time, boron concentration in the aqueous phase, extractant concentration, equilibrium pH and phase ratio were studied for process optimization. Equilibrium conditions for boron recovery were optimized from the batch test results as: 2 stages of extraction and 2 stages of stripping with an organic: aqueous (O:A) ratio of 1. Maximum boron extraction was achieved at a pH range of 1.0 - 6.0. Overall 95.6% boron recovery was achieved under the best experimental conditions.