Abstract:
A process for recovering an onium hydroxide from a composition containing onium ions and a process residue, including providing a composition containing onium ions and a process residue; adding a quantity of a surfactant to the composition to obtain a surfactant-modified composition; providing a cation exchange media; collecting the onium ions by applying the surfactant-modified composition to the cation exchange media wherein the onium ions become bound to and retained by the cation exchange media and the process residue and the surfactant do not become bound to the cation exchange media and are substantially not retained by the cation exchange media; and recovering the onium ions from the cation exchange media as an onium hydroxide by applying a cation-containing hydroxide composition to the cation exchange media.