Mass transfer in a pulsed and non-pulsed disc and doughnut (PDD) solvent extraction column

Abstract

Mechanical agitation or pulsation is usually introduced to a solvent extraction column to improve the efficiency. Recently a number of industrial scale pulsed disc and doughnut (PDD) solvent extraction columns have been found to have higher extraction efficiency while running with non-pulsing. In this study, the mass transfer performance of a PDD column was measured under pulsing and non-pulsing conditions using a 72.5 mm diameter disc and doughnut column. The effects of pulsation intensity and dispersed and continuous phase velocity on the mass transfer performance have been investigated. The results show that, under non-pulsing conditions, the overall mass transfer coefficient increased wi..