Every three years the world’s leaders in solvent extraction get together at the International Solvent Extraction Conference and in 2014 it was held in Wurzburg in Germany.

The following are 9 papers that were picked out that show an overview of the work presented and provide an update on some of the research being undertaken in solvent extraction today.For me the trend to environmentally sustainable bio derived solvents is a key for the future.

Given the focus on sustainability and the potential for the production of molecules that have interesting properties as solvents,and cannot be synthesised by traditional techniques,,there seems to be a significant opportunity to exploit some of these systems.There is a continued exploration of the application of micro fluidics in solvent extraction which has identified some niche applications and this will grow as we learn more about this.In the development of models for the prediction of the performance of contacting equipment the development of CFD with population balance models continues to improve,we are now at a point where the physics of coalescence and breakage are the key unknowns and a better understanding of the forces that control these processes are needed.Also,the development of synergistic solvent systems for specific separations is an important trend for the future.

These papers show the increased sophistication of the technology and how it can be used across a broad spectrum of industry from mining,fine chemical,natural product extraction to environmental clean-up.They show that solvent extraction technology is evolving to meet today’s challenges.

For those who find these papers interesting and want more,the next ISEC wil be in Miyazakiin Japan in 2017.Ilook forward to seeing you there.