Anti-TBP monoclonal antibody, clone 2UC29

U-Zr and U-Pu-Zr metallic alloy fuels have been employed in fast reactors in the early days and these fuels have been considered for use in future fast reactors in India. It is proposed to develop an aqueous method based on the PUREX process for the reprocessing of spent metallic fuels. In the present study, an ejector mixer-settler was employed to demonstrate the feasibility of aqueous reprocessing of U-Zr and U-Pu-Zr metallic alloy fuels with tri-n-Butyl Phosphate (TBP) as the extractant. Continuous counter-current mixer settler runs were separately carried out with U-Zr and U-Pu-Zr feed solutions using 1.1 M TBP/n-DD solvent. Quantitative extraction of U and U + Pu was achieved within five stages leaving zirconium in the raffinate in the case of U-Zr and U-Pu-Zr feed solutions, respectively. Quantitative back extraction of uranium from loaded organic phase was achieved using 0.01 M HNO3 in the case of U-Zr mixer-settler runs. Dual strip solutions such as 2 M and 0.01 M HNO3 were used for the quantitative stripping of U and Pu from the loaded organic phase in the case of U-Pu-Zr mixer-settler runs. The proposed flow sheets demonstrate that the aqueous reprocessing of metallic fuels using a PUREX-based method is feasible.

Use of toxic diluent is harmful for producing caproic acid from fermentation unit. It led to consider green and non-toxic diluents: sunflower and soybean oils in the current study along with tributyl phosphate (TBP) as the reactive extractant. Important performance indicator parameters were estimated over the temperature range of 298 K-318 K. The changed of enthalpy and entropy because of mass transfer of caproic acid from aqueous phase to the interfaces, complexation reaction and overall acid transfer from aqueous phase to organic phase were estimated and analyzed. Best model among considered different acid concentration dependent distribution coefficient models was identified following a newly developed method. Sunflower oil is identified as more efficient diluent than soybean oil. The new method has successfully determined the equilibrium complexation reaction stoichiometry. Further, concentrations of complex, free acid and dimer in the organic phase were determined which never were estimated previously. In spite of low loading ratio, less than 0.5 in the current experimental study, the estimated m has appeared greater than 1.0 for n = 1. Current work has suggested to use presently studied microorganism friendly green and nontoxic diluents (sunflower and soybean oil) in biorefinary industry for recovering caproic acid from fermentation unit.