New predictive correlation for mass transfer coefficient in structured packed extraction columns

Abstract

Developments in the area of packed columns, particularly structured packed columns, are ongoing, specifically in the area of liquid–liquid extractions in different industries. In the present study, mass transfer coefficients have been obtained experimentally in a structured packed extraction column to develop a new correlation for prediction of continuous phase Sherwood number. The experiments were carried out for toluene/acetic acid/water and n-butyl acetate/acetic acid/water systems with counter current flow in different heights of column. A new dimensionless parameter, d32/h, is introduced in proposed equation. This number considers the effect of column height (h) and mean drop diameter (d32) jointly. The main advantage of this approach is that the principal effect of column height is considered in correlation without which the experimental data could not be fitted with a acceptable accuracy.