FEASIBILITY OF USING IONIC LIQUIDS IN THE EXTRACTION OF ORGANIC/INORGANIC COMPOUNDS FROM REFINERY WASTEWATER

This work analyzed the feasibility of using ILs in the extraction of organic/inorganic
compounds as well as heavy metals (Zn2+ and Pb2+) from aqueous solutions of refinery
wastewater. In this scope, imidazolium cation based ILs which are 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium
trifluoromethanesulfonatc [bmim +][OTf], 1-Butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium
trifluoroacetate [bmim +][CF3COCr] and 1-Butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium chloride
[bmim+][Cr] were used. These ILs were founded that they allow the extraction and
removal of organic/inorganic compounds including heavy metal ions contain in the
aqueous solutions. The usage of ILs are emphasize in this project because it has an
increasing interest in the industry since ILs are more environmental friendly and safer to
be used as well as it has a lot of attractive and high potential of unique properties to
offer. The ability of ILs as the chemical tenability had made them as a novel solvents
with similar physical properties but having different chemical behavior. They have been
demonstrated in previous studies conducted that ILs has more advantages in the
extraction technology compared to the conventional solvents used currently as
extraction medium in Liquid Liquid Extraction process in which achieving high
efficiencies and selectivities upon the extraction. Based on the results achieved via this
work, the extraction percentage of Zn2
' and Pb2+ were analyzed. It was observed that the
IL of 1-Butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate [bmim +] (OTC] allowed
the highest removal of heavy metals with the extraction percentage of Zn2+ and Pb2+, it
is noted that high extraction percentage was achieved for Zn2+ (87.50 %) and Pb2+
(86.67%) compared to [bmim +][CF3C00·1 and [bmim' J[OTf ·]. For the removal of
organic compounds analyzed by GCMS, it is shown that different !Ls have capability to
extract different of the selected hydrocarbons. This work is significantly important as
the use of !Ls is widely considered as high potential as alternative solvents in the
industries.