A demonstration test was performed to separate minor actinides (MA; Am and Cm) by N,N,N',N',N'',N''-hexaoctyl nitrilotriacetamide (HONTA) as an extractant using mixer-settler extractors installed in a hot cell. A high-level liquid waste containing MA, and rare earths (RE; Y, La, Nd, and Eu) was used as the feed. HONTA diluted to 0.05 mol/dm³ in n-dodecane was fed as the organic phase, and a part of the organic phase was reused without solvent regeneration. HONTA effectively extracted MA, whereas RE were less extractable. Consequently, the Y, La, Nd, and Eu ratios distributed to a RE fraction were >99.9%, 99.2%, 61.8%, and 81.4%, respectively. The Am and Cm ratios distributed to an MA fraction were 86.8% and 74.7%, respectively, and a substantial amount of MA (0.12 g) was recovered in the MA fraction by the end of the cumulative duration of 40 h.

We report here the effect of a water-soluble elicitor, coronatine, on the amount of paclitaxel produced in a plant cell culture by in situ extraction with a water-immiscible ionic liquid, 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (P14TFSI). The amount of paclitaxel produced in the cell culture without P14TFSI enhanced with increase of coronatine concentration, however, the amount of cell growth including coronatine was lower than that of the control because of feedback inhibition by the produced paclitaxel. The amount of the cell growth in the culture with P14TFSI and coronatine increased more than that in the control culture because the produced paclitaxel was decreased by in situ extraction with P14TFSI. The production amount of paclitaxel in the two-phase culture increased with increase of coronatine concentration, reached the peak in that including 1 µM coronatine and decreased. The production amount of paclitaxel in the culture including P14TFSI and 1 µM coronatine was 250 times greater than that of the control culture, possibly due to the synergistic effects of coronatine and abiotic stress of P14TFSI.

In this study, a new extraction system NaPF₆ + NaClO₄ + TBP has nearly the same extraction efficiency of Li⁺ as the NaPF₆ + TBP system, and nearly the same stripping efficiency of Li⁺ as NaClO₄ + TBP system. The effect of NaClO₄ and NaPF₆ concentration, and phase ratio on extraction efficiency was investigated. At the optimal conditions, the single extraction efficiency of Li⁺ is 77.1%. The stripping efficiency of Li⁺ reaches 90.7% using pure water as a stripping agent with the volume ratio of the aqueous phase to the organic phase (A/O) of 3. TBP + NaPF₆ + NaClO₄ system has great potential in Li⁺ extraction from Mg²⁺ rich solution.

We synthesized low-toxicity L-leucine propyl ester linoleate and L-leucine propyl ester oleate pseudo-protic ionic liquids (ILs) for benign extraction of Ni(II), Co(II), and Mn(II). The extraction ability order for both ILs was Ni(II) > Co(II) > Mn(II). In addition, we developed a machine learning model with an eXtreme Gradient Boosting regressor algorithm to evaluate and predict the ecotoxicity level of the ILs. An evaluation of the proposed regression model by cross-validation indicates that the model is reliable, with an R² value of 0.71. The prediction results indicate that the newly synthesized ILs are much less toxic than a commercially available IL (methyltrioctylammonium chloride) that is often used for metal extraction.