Comparison of mass transfer performance of pulsed columns with Tenova kinetics internals and standard disc and doughnut internals

Abstract

One of the limitations to the application of columns to solvent extraction in the minerals industry is their relative inefficiency in slow kinetic systems such as those used for the separation of copper. In order to overcome this, this work examines the performance of a new kinetic internal and compares it to standard column internals for both a fast and slow kinetic system.The mass transfer performance of a pilot scale pulsed solvent extraction column with Tenova Kinetics Internals (TKI) and standard disc and doughnut internals (DDI) are compared, including the effect of pulsation intensity, continuous and dispersed phase velocities using the H2SO4 – Alamine® 336 system, a fast kinetic system, and CuSO4 – LIX® 84 system, a slow kinetic system. The height of mass transfer unit (Hoc) for the CuSO4 – LIX 84 system increased with continuous and dispersed phase velocity and decreased with the increase of pulsation intensity. The Hoc for TKI was lower than the DDI for the same operating conditions and the TKI reduced the impact of both phase velocities on mass transfer. TKI can maintain the mass transfer performance for the fast kinetics H2SO4-Alamine 336 system compared to standard disc and doughnut internals and improve mass transfer performance for slow kinetics CuSO4- LIX® 84 system. An empirical correlation to predict the height of mass transfer unit in both internals was developed with absolute relative errors of 28.0% and 19.2% for the H2SO4 – Alamine 336 system and CuSO4 – LIX 84 system, respectively.