Chemie Ingenieur Technik, Vol.91, No.11, 1515-1521, 2019
Practical Experience in Design and Operation of Liquid-Liquid Extraction Processes
Liquid-liquid (L/L) extraction is a standard unit operation in the phenol-acetone process. Special applications are the extraction of phenol from process water and the removal of phenol from recycle cumene. Besides the standard equipment such as static mixers and horizontal settlers, centrifugal pumps are used for mixing and vertical settlers are operated for phase separation. This article covers some practical experience in design and operation with focus on using centrifugal pumps, maintain mass transfer in pipes and the design of vertical settlers. Gaps in knowledge about various phenomena such as the mass transfer in turbulent L/L pipe flow are pointed out.