Abstract
Author(s): Saeed Hamed, Merlin Thomas, S. Feroz and L. Nageswara Rao*
In the present study, the distribution of castor oil and soya bean oil between hexane and the dual solvent system of hexane and ethanol is measured. The dual solvent system comprises of hexane and ethanol in equal proportions which is a mixture of a non-polar and a polar solvent. The separation efficiency was determined as function of solvent-feed ratio, contact time and contact temperature. The efficiency of dual solvent system was found to be much better than that of the single solvent system. The synergism in separation was brought by the combined effect of the nonpolar hexane and polar-aprotic ethanol.