The Extraction of Uranium as Uranyl Nitrate Complex in The Nitrate Acid Solution by Liquid Membrane Emulsion Technique

The extraction of uranium as uranyl nitrate complex in the nitrate acid solution has been carried out using a liquid membrane emulsion technique. The liquid membrane phase is in form of emulsion that consists of kerosene as the solvent, sorbitan monooleat (span-80) as the surfactant, di-2 ethyl phosphoric acids (D2EHPA) as the carrier agent, and phosphoric acids as the internal phase. The optimum conditions for the extraction of uranium as uranyl nitrate complex have been obtained as the following: the organic phase (O) and the water or internal liquid phase (W) ratio in the liquid membrane phase (O/W) was 1, the concentration of nitric acid in the external phase was 3M, the D2EHPH concentration was 10% (v/v), the extraction time was 5 minutes and the agitation speed to achieve a membrane emulsion was 7500 rpm. At this condition the extraction efficiency obtained was 94.24%. The experiments also showed that the amount of extracted uranium by the liquid. membrane emulsion was limited