The Kinetics of Droplet Sedimentation in Liquid-Liquid Extraction

Liquid-liquid extraction is a major separation process in chemical industry. Beside appropriate design of mass transfer equipment, successful design of phase separation equipment is an important issue. Therefore, the separation of liquid-liquid dispersions was investigated and modeled with kinetic approaches to gain information for settler design. A modified first-order sedimentation rate model, a first-order consecutive step rate model, and a mixed-order rate model were applied and compared to the experimental data. The advantage of kinetic modeling of the rate of sedimentation, specifically addressing the impact of viscosity and electrolyte concentration, was successfully demonstrated.