Centrifugal contactors applications

Typical regions for application of contactors of different types are given in Table 13.2. The choice of a contactor for a particular application requires the consideration of several factors including chemical stability, the value of the products and the rate of phase separation. Occasionally, the extraction system may be chemically unstable and the contact time must then be kept to a minimum by using equipment such as a centrifugal contactor. 

Design Principles and Applications of Centrifugal Contactors for Solvent Extraction... 

In this chapter, Section 10.2 gives an overview of the operation of the Argonne centrifugal contactor. Section 10.3 focuses on the design principles for this contactor. Section 10.4 discusses the worldwide applications of this contactor to solvent-extraction processes of interest to the nuclear and other industries. Comparisons with other types of contactors are made throughout the text, and a separate section is devoted to them in Section 10.4. However, because of their widespread use and the author s particular experience with them, the ANL contactor and its variations remain the primary focus. 

As the focus of this book is on nuclear fuel reprocessing and nuclear-waste cleanup, we will focus on applications in these areas. This section will look at the reprocessing of nuclear fuel and the cleanup and segregation of nuclear waste with SRL and ANL contactors. Finally, other centrifugal contactors used for nuclear processing in France, Japan, Russia, and China will be discussed. 

While this chapter and this applications section has focused on ANL and CINC contactors, other centrifugal contactors have been used to process nuclear materials. Some of these contactors and the flowsheets tested using them are discussed here. 

The INET annular centrifugal contactors are being used to partition high-level liquid waste so that the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle can be simplified. In particular, the TRPO process has been developed at INET for this application (Song, 2000), where TRPO is the extractant in the process solvent. Also known as Cyanex 923, TRPO is a trialkyl phosphine oxide that is made commercially by Cytec Industries (formerly American Cyanamid). It has a high affinity for the actinides. Further... 

Zhou, J., W. Duan, X. Zhou, and C. Zhang. 2007. Application of Annular Centrifugal Contactors in the Extraction Flowsheet for Producing High Purity Yttrium. Hydrometallurgy 85, 154-162. 

Since these efficiency correlations are based on limited systems (ethanol extmction only) and in only one size contactor (16-stage Savannah River mini-mixer-settlers or 2 cm Argonne high-speed centrifugal contactor), their applicability to other systems and/or equipment is unknowa. 

---