Determination of the Liquid Hold-up Volume and the Interface Radius of an Annular Centrifugal Contactor using the Liquid-Fast-Separation Method

Abstract

Annular centrifugal contactors (ACCs), which use centrifugal force to separate the dispersion of two immiscible liquids of different densities, have been utilized in many industrial fields, such as the petroleum, hydrometallurgy, wastewater treatment, pharmaceutical processing, protein extraction, enantioselective chemical separation, biodiesel synthesis, and nuclear industries. Detailed hydrodynamic information, such as the liquid hold-up volume and the interface radius, is very important for successful design and operation of ACCs. A new method, namely, the liquid-fast-separation method, was developed to (1) obtain the parameters of the liquid hold-up volume, the actual phase ratio (aqueous phase/organic phase, a/o) of two phases in the mixing zone, and the interface radius, and (2) investigate the effects of the rotor speed, the total flow rate, the flow ratio (a/o), and the diameter of the heavy phase weir on these parameters. The experimental results indicated that the parameters of the liquid hold-up volume, the actual phase ratio (a/o) of two phases in the mixing zone, and the interface radius could be obtained using the liquid-fast-separation method. Moreover, the effects of the rotor speed, the total flow rate, the flow ratio (a/o), and the diameter of the heavy phase weir on these parameters could also be obtained. These results provide a more complete understanding of the fluid flow in ACCs to enable further advancements in their design and operation.