Modeling investigation of mass transfer of gas-liquid-liquid dispersion systems

In this paper, a modeling study on the mechanism of process intensification of liquid-liquid extraction with high phase ratio by forming G/W/O (gas in water phase in organic phase) microdispersion system is carried out. Extraction of H2O2 from an organic phase to an aqueous phase was selected as the model system. The influence of the addition of gas phase as well as dispersion size on mass transfer performance is investigated. The results show that both the increase in the addition of gas phase and decrease in dispersion size lead to significant enhancement in mass transfer performance, especially for the overall mass transfer coefficient. As gas-to-water flow rate ratio increases from 25 to 600, the overall volumetric mass transfer coefficient increases by nearly two orders of magnitude. The calculation result shows good coincidence with experimental values. The modeling investigation possibly leads to a further understanding of the mechanism of process intensification of liquid-liquid extraction process by introducing microbubbles and forming G/W/O microdispersion system and also helps the development of new extraction processes as well as design of microdispersion devices with compactness and high efficiency. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.