Dispersed phase mass transfer during drop formation and coalescence in liquid‐liquid extraction

Abstract

AbstractRates of mass transfer during drop formation and coalescence were investigated for three dispersed phase‐controlled liquid systems, one binary (ethyl acetate‐water) and two ternary (acetic acid‐chlorobenzene‐water and acetic acid‐50% by volume mixture of carbon tetrachloride and nujol‐water). A calculation procedure was devised to isolate these end effects. The measured rates during drop formation were in general greater than predicted by various theoretical models, including those by Heertjes et al. and Ilkovic; and measurements during drop coalescence were in general lower than predicted by the simplified penetration theory model of Johnson and Hamielec. The results were statistically correlated with average absolute deviations of 26.2 and 25.4%, respectively, for drop formation and coalescence.