A Parametric Study For Boron Extraction Efficiency From Aqueous Medium Using Novel Deep Eutectic Mixtures

Boron is one of the vital elements for human health-boosting, industrial applications, and plant growth. However, if the boron concentration in an aqueous stream would go beyond the permissible limit, it should be removed and recovered. Therefore, boron extraction is targeted as a preventive measure to satisfy the standards for drinking water and protect the plant crops. Moreover, for production purposes, boron is recovered from industrial wastewater or nuclear streams to be reused in various processes. Based on previous experimental work within our group, a novel deep eutectic mixture composed of decanol (Dec) and 2,2,4-Trimethyl-1,3-pentanediol (TMPD) was developed and examined for the removal of boron from aqueous medium through liquid-liquid extraction (LLE). The Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) are ‘green” solvents that have many desirable features like low volatility, simplicity of synthesis, biodegradability, and cost-efficiency. In this work, the hydrophobic deep eutectic solvent that consists of Dec-TMPD is used as a solvent to extract boron from an aqueous medium at different operating conditions. The performance of the newly developed eutectic mixtures is verified over various operational extraction variables such as pH, aqueous to organic mass ratio, and temperature. This is accomplished by following an Experimental Design in accordance to the Design of Experiments (DoE) statistical methodology. The Design and statistical analysis were done with the aid of ‘Minitab’ software. The results presented here provide the optimum range of extraction process variables that allow an efficient Boron LLE with the aid of a new environmentally-friendly deep eutectic solvent.