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Article: Flights of fancy. (new mixer/settler claims 75% savings in time and energy)
- Article from:
- Process Engineering
- Article date:
- March 1, 1991
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1991 Centaur Communications Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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FLIGHTS OF FANCY
A project at Leeds University is claimed to save around 75 per cent of the time and energy used in conventional mixer/settlers. Michelle Knott looks at this elegant solution to an old optimisation problem.
Liquid/liquid extraction presents engineers with the classic problem of two, directly opposing goals.
For effective mass transfer of the solute between the solvent phases, large interfacial areas must be generated -- in other words, a lot of well-dispersed, small droplets. But this is exactly the opposite of what is needed for the two solvent phases to separate quickly and effectively.
The most common type of unit is the ...