Marco Mazzotti, Ian de Albuquerque

Liquid-Liquid Extraction: Part 2

Overview of Liquid-Liquid Extraction

Used when a solute (A) should be extracted from a Feed (F)

stream into a Solvent (S) stream, thereby cleaning F
e.g: aromatics separated from paraffins using sulfolane; metal
removal from waste water
Advantageous if components have close boiling points,
(b.p.s) very high or low b.ps
Solvent recovery may be costly (e.g. distillation )

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Outline

Ternary Phase Diagrams

Lever-Arm Rule
Immiscible Extraction
Counter-Current
Cross-Current
Design Problems

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Ternary Phase Diagrams

Two representations: Right and Equilateral Triangle

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Ternary Phase Diagrams

Mole fractions in percent

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Ternary Phase Diagrams

Mole fractions in percent

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Ternary Phase Diagrams

Examples of LLE

Ind. Eng. Chem. Process Des. Dev., Vol. 20, No. 2, 1981 D-MAVT/IPE/SPL | 27.04.2017 | 7
Ternary Phase Diagrams

Temperature Effect

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Ternary Phase Diagrams

Temperature Effect

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Ternary Phase Diagrams

Temperature Effect

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Outline

Ternary Phase Diagrams

Lever-Arm Rule
Immiscible Extraction
Counter-Current
Cross-Current

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Lever-Arm Rule

F1 and F2 are flow rates with

compositions indicated in the
phase diagram

Overall Material Balance (M.B.)

Component M.B.

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Lever-Arm Rule

Mixing stream compositions are

Are points F1, F2, and M co-linear?

Solving component M.B. for A and D

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Lever-Arm Rule

Equating stream rations F1/F2

Therefore F1,F2 and M are co-

linear. Lever-arm rule:

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Outline

Ternary Phase Diagrams

Lever-Arm Rule
Immiscible Extraction
Counter-Current
Cross-Current
Design Problems

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Immiscible Extraction

Solvent and diluent are immiscible in one-another

In practice nearly immiscible exists

One stage consists of a mixer and settler

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Immiscible Extraction

Counter-Current cascade

When solvent and diluent are immiscible,:

Parallel with Absorption/Stripping

(constant gas and liquid streams)
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Immiscible Extraction

Define weight ratios of solute:

M.B on solute:

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Immiscible Extraction

Example Counter-Current cascade

Recall that LLE is represented as:

Re-naming as :

For dilute extraction

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Immiscible Extraction
Example Counter-Current cascade
A mixture of 10 wt% acetic acid in water, should be extracted with 1-
butanol at 1 atm and 299.85 K. How many stages should be used to
obtain exiting streams of 0.4 wt% acetic acid in water and 9.6 wt%
in 1-butanol? Equilibrium data

Convert wt. fractions to wt. ratios

Find diluent to solvent ratio from mass balance | |
Immiscible Extraction
Graphical solution

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Immiscible Extraction
Graphical solution

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Immiscible Extraction
Graphical solution

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Immiscible Extraction
Graphical solution

How to determine
?

Analogy with stripping

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Immiscible Extraction

Cross-Current cascade

Solvent and diluent are again assumed immiscible

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Immiscible Extraction

M.B on solute:

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Reference

Phillip C. Wankat, Equilibrium-Staged Separations,

1988 Prentice Hall (ISBN: 0-13-500968-5)

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Liquid-Liquid Extraction: Part 2

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