Mini-batch settling cell for investigation of liquid-liquid phase separation

The performance of the phase separation, particularly the sedimentation and coalescence behavior is pivotal for the efficiency of the process design of a gravity settler. Given the significant parameter space involved, a new approach for batch-settling experiments is presented. Compared to a commonly used liter-scale batch-settling cell, the new cell requires a small volume of 21 ml and enables parallelization of up to 20 experiments. These are compared with the data from the common cell to evaluate the quality of the measurement data generated with the new cell. For this purpose, Sauter mean diameters and coalescence parameters are determined for standard test systems with the new and the common cells and used to design a settler. The mini-batch settling cell not only qualitatively describes the settling behavior but can also be used for designing a settler with the same accuracy as the common cell.