[beheada]

I've noticed in our little camera supply store that they have developers for black and white photography that have hydroquinone in them (the reason I'm stuck on hydroquinone is because we an oxidation lab using it). I was wondering if there's a way to extract the hydroquinone from the developers.

http://www.physchem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/HY/hydroquinone.html

I'm assuming I should probably get a list of the other chemicals that are in the developer to know the answer to this question... so I'll add them later today if I get a chance to make it out there. But if you have any ideas, or if you've tried doing it before, let me know. I'm not sure if you can just "buy" hydroquinone, but I'm more or less interested in the extraction/separation process.

[pantone159]

A typical B&W developer might contain:
  Metol (a.k.a. 4-(methylamino) phenol sulfate)
  Sodium sulfite
  Hydroquinone
  Sodium carbonate
  Potassium bromide
(the above is called D-72.)

You could possibly try acid-base extraction, the developers (metol and hydroquinone) ought to be less soluble in water, and more soluble in organics, when protonated in acid, and the reverse when deprotonated in base.  Both metol and hydroquinone would probably come together.

However, you can probably find hydroquinone, from photo chem suppliers, who will sell to individuals.  Try
http://www.artcraftchemicals.com/ - Artcraft Chemicals, or http://www.photoformulary.com/DesktopDefault.aspx - Photographers' Formulary.