Continuous high viscosity biphasic liquid separation

Abstract

Enhancing the efficiency of separation in high-viscosity biphasic liquid purification processes can significantly reduce energy consumption and costs. This study has developed a co-axial biphasic liquid separator that can continuously and instantaneously separate two-phase mixtures with viscosities up to 2000 mPa∙s at room temperature, to meet real industrial needs. This co-axial biphasic liquid separator uses a special helix wire structure that separates the two-phase fluids based on the difference in surface tension, unaffected by the viscosity of the liquids. In experiments with PMMA-toluene-water mixtures, the flow rate can reach up to 4000 μl/min, with PMMA recovery rates consistently above 83.6 %, and as high as 91.5 %. In experiments with undiluted heavy oil–water, a purity of up to 87.58 % was achieved for heavy oil, and for diluted heavy oil, the purity even reached as high as 92.15 %. The separator demonstrated remarkable universality and durability, maintaining stable and high-purity biphasic separation across varying flow rates, through 15 cycles of repeated use, and during prolonged operations of up to one hour, without any system failures. The co-axial biphasic liquid separator developed in this study is currently the only few microseparator in continuous processes capable of separating liquids with viscosities over 2100 mPa∙s, and it could decrease the cost of relevant process development in industrial setups, realizing the vision of green manufacturing.