Separation Science and Technology, Vol.50, No.12, 1794-1805, 2015
Mass Transfer- Fluid Flow Interactions in Perforated Plate Extractive Reactors
Coupling between extraction, reaction, and liquid-liquid contact hydrodynamics have quantitative as well as qualitative implications on the performance of un-agitated perforated plate extractive reactors. Models, which take into account the effect of flow dynamics on mass transfer performance, are developed to analyze the steady state behavior of such columns when conducting a chemical reaction in the continuous extract phase. New expressions are derived for the composition profiles in the cases of physical extraction, slow, and infinitely fast reactions. Typical results show that the raffinate purity may either increase or decrease on increasing the solvent rate depending on the interaction between column fluid dynamics, mass transfer, and reaction kinetics.