The Effect of Size and Concentration of Nanoparticles on the Mass Transfer Coefficients in Irregular Packed Liquid–Liquid Extraction Columns

Abstract

This investigation explored the effects of nanofluids on mass transfer enhancement using an irregularly packed liquid–liquid extraction column and the chemical systems of water–acetic acid–toluene. SiO2 nanoparticles with sizes of 10, 30, or 80 nm are dispersed in toluene–acetic acid to produce nanofluids with different volume fractions of 0, 0.01, 0.05, and 0.1 vol.%. The effects of nanoparticle size and concentration on dispersed phase mass transfer coefficient were discussed based on the experimental data. This is for the first time that the effect of nanoparticle size is studied in liquid–liquid extraction systems. It was found that the mass transfer enhancement was more significant in nanofluids with smaller particles. It was also observed that mass transfer coefficient is larger in nanofluids compared to that in dispersed phase without nanoparticles, with a peak enhancement at a nanoparticle volume fraction of 0.05 vol.% for 10-nm particles and 0.01 vol.% for 30- and 80-nm particles. The maximum mass transfer coefficient enhancement was approximately 42% at 0.05% concentration of nanoparticles using smaller particles (10 nm). Finally, a novel correlation for prediction of effective diffusivity in the presence of nanoparticles has been proposed, which is a function of nanoparticle size and its concentration. The main advantage of this approach is that the principal effect of these two parameters is considered in correlation without which the experimental data could not be fitted with an acceptable accuracy.