Continuum model for extraction and retention in porous media

Abstract

Several natural and industrial processes involve the extraction or retention of a solute by a fluid invading a network of channels. Examples include aquifer contamination, chemical filtration, and coffee extraction. We propose a continuum equation to model these processes, parametrized by the Péclet number and the rate of mass transfer between the solid and the fluid. We study the time dependence of the extracted mass for different values of the parameter space. The continuum description is validated by combining extraction experiments with coffee and computational fluid dynamics. An analytical solution is derived for the limit of slow mass transfer, which is corroborated by numerical simulations.