Rare earth elements separation in double mixing chamber mixer-settler systems

Abstract

A new design of a double mixing chamber mixer-settler system consisting of a mixer with double mixing chambers in series and a settler of the shallow bed type is presented. The new design has the advantages of low backmixing in the mixer, stable flow pattern in the settler, and very little intrastage and interstage short circuiting. A prototype system was applied to rare earth elements separation and achieved extraction efficiency in the range of 0.90–0.93.