Separation L-glutamic acid by emulsion liquid membrane extraction

Emulsion liquid membrane extraction has been carried out to separate L-glutamic acid in a batch extractor. The emulsion is formulated by using kerosene as solvent, water as internal stripping phase, tri-ethanol amine as an emulsifier and oleic acid as carrier. The effect of emulsifier concentration on emulsion stability was studied and the maximum stability-of emulsion was obtained for an emulsifier concentration of 1.0 per cent (v/v). The percentage reduction of amino acid (solute) in external phase was significantly affected by the parameters such as emulsion to external phase (M/E) ratio, agitator speed, emulsifier concentration, carrier concentration and pH of both external-and internal phase. The maximum solute reduction of 66.0 per cent was obtained for M/E ratio of 0.2 (v/v), an agitator speed of 150 rpm, emulsifier conc of 1.0 per cent (v/v), carrier conc of 4.0 per cent (v/v), pH of external phase at 4.0 and pH of internal phase at 7.8. The above emulsion system is found to be highly feasible than the emulsion system consisting of lubricating oil -0.5 M HCl solution and Indian glycol emulsifiers for extraction of L-glutamic acid where the maximum solute recovery of 63.5 per cent was obtained for M/E ratio of 0.25 (v/v) at 150 rpm with external phase pH of 4.0.