Liquid-liquid extraction intensification by micro-droplet rotation in a hydrocyclone.

ABSTRACT: The previous literature reports that using a hydrocyclone as an extractor intensifies the mass transfer and largely reduces the consumption of extractant from 1800-2000?kg?h^-1 to 30-90?kg?h^-1. However, the intensification mechanism has not been clear. This paper presents experimental and numerical methods to study the multi-scale motion of particles in hydrocyclones. In addition to the usually considered translational behavior, the high-speed rotation of dispersed micro-spheres caused by the anisotropic swirling shear flow is determined. The rotation speeds of the tested micro-spheres are above 1000?rad?s^-1, which are much larger than the instantaneous rotation speed in isotropic turbulence. Due to the conical structure of a hydrocyclone, the rotation speed maintains stability along the axial direction. Numerical results show that the particle Reynolds number of micro-droplets in a hydrocyclone is equal to that in conventional extractors, but the particles have high rotation speeds of up to 10,000?rad?s^-1 and long mixing lengths of more than 1000?mm. Both the rotation of micro-droplets along the spiral trajectories and the intense eddy diffusion in a hydrocyclone contribute to the extraction intensification.

SUBMITTER: Huang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5457425 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature