Novel type of impinging streams contactor for liquid-liquid extraction

An experimental study was conducted on liquid-liquid extraction of succinic acid by means of normal butanol from its aqueous solution (BSW), iodine from its aqueous solution by means of kerosene (KIW), and acetic acid by means of distilled water from kerosene (WAK) in a novel type of contactor based on an impinging streams technique. This high-intensity jet contactor provides significant improvement over the conventional extractor because of the impingement of high-velocity feed streams upon one another in a relatively small contactor volume, resulting in a high-turbulent mixing of two phases. As a result of both the impinging process and shear forces exerted on the phases, the overall volumetric (capacity) mass-transfer coefficients, K(L)a, of up to 15, 23, and 26 min(-1) have been obtained for BSW, KIW, and WAK, respectively. The order of magnitudes of the latter coefficients are higher than typical values obtained by conventional extractors. In addition, the effects of the upper disk speed, solution flow rate, disk diameter, distance between disks and the enhancing effect of impinging streams have been investigated. These experimental results verify the capability of the new contactor in liquid-liquid extraction.