Mass transfer studies in an L-shaped pulsed sieve-plate extraction column

ABSTRACT

In the process of our research, the mass transfer performance of an L-shaped pulsed sieve-plate extraction column for toluene–acetone–water and n-butyl acetate–acetone–water systems is investigated using the back flow model. The volumetric overall mass transfer coefficients are determined with respect to the variation of the mean drop size and the dispersed phase holdup in the column and the effects of the operating parameters are evaluated. Furthermore, a new empirical correlation is proposed for the prediction of the overall continuous phase Sherwood number based on the Reynolds number, the Schmidt number, and the values of holdup, denoting a satisfactory agreement with the experimental data.

KEYWORDS:

• L-shaped pulsed sieve-plate column
• mass transfer
• back flow model
• solvent extraction
• hydrodynamic performance