Avaliação de um equipamento (protótipo) para extração líquido-líquido.

Abstract

The present work aims to evaluate the performance of a liquid - mixer - decanter (Mixer - Settler) extraction equipment which is It consists of five stages, each containing a mixer and a decanter, interconnected by weirs that allow the circulation of both phases. The system chosen for the tests was: 0.10M hydrochloric acid - Iron (III) - di- (2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (HDEHP) diluted in hexane, with Iron (III) being the solute to be distributed between the aqueous and organic respectively. Through the distribution coefficient, the influence of the variation of the concentration of HDEHP and Iron (III), for a volume ratio between phases and a constant feed flow. Another parameter investigated was the influence of the volume ratio between the organic and aqueous phases on the distribution coefficient when the concentration of the extractant and the iron (III) ion in the aqueous phase remained constant. Finally, it was verified the behavior of the variation of the flow rate of the organic and aqueous phases in order to study the equipment performance, keeping the concentrations of the extractant and the metallic species in the aqueous phase constant, and the volume ratio between the two. phases.