Evaluation of the operating parameters impact on hydrodynamic parameters of horizontal pulsed sieve-plate column using response surface methodology

Abstract

The uranium extraction process from leach liquor solution of Bandar Abbas ore with Alamine 336 in a horizontal pulsed sieve-plate column has been evaluated numerically. In this study; Alamine 336 with a concentration of 0.125 mol L−1, isodecanol with a concentration of 5% (v/v), and kerosene were used as the organic phase. The aqueous phase was a leach liquor solution containing 0.25 g L−1 uranium and 0.22 mol L−1 sulfate. In this study, the response surface methodology (RSM) was used to investigate the effect of three effective operating parameters in the pulsed column as pulse intensity and the continuous and dispersed phases flow rates on the hydrodynamic parameters such as dispersed phase holdup, slip and characteristics velocities. The obtained results show that the hydrodynamic parameters are strongly dependent on the pulse intensity and turbulence degree of the system. In addition, three new practical correlations based on operating parameters of a column are presented to predict the dispersed phase holdup, slip, and characteristics velocities by the RSM. The correlations presented by the response surface method showed a good prediction of the experimental data with a maximum R2 value of 0.98.