Design aspects contactor

The transfer of mass from one phase to another is involved in the operations of distillation, absorption, extraction, humidification, adsorption, drying, and crystallization. The principal function of the equipment used for these operations is to permit efficient contact between the phases. Many special types of equipment have been developed that are particularly applicable for use with a given operation, but finite-stage contactors and continuous contactors are the types most commonly encountered. A major part of this chapter, therefore, is devoted to the design aspects and costs of stagewise plate contactors and continuous packed contactors. 

Depending on the relative rates of mass transfer and the chemical reaction (as well as many process-specific conditions), the appropriate equipment for gas-liquid systems may conform to many different geometries. The conventional types include bubble columns, spray columns, multistage contactors (sieve or bubble plate, mechanically agitated etc.) and packed towers whose design aspects will be discusses in the two published volumes of this ASl. 

The second part deals with applications of solvent extraction in industry, and begins with a general chapter (Chapter 7) that involves both equipment, flowsheet development, economic factors, and environmental aspects. Chapter 8 is concerned with fundamental engineering concepts for multistage extraction. Chapter 9 describes contactor design. It is followed by the industrial extraction of organic and biochemical compounds for purification and pharmaceutical uses (Chapter 10), recovery of metals for industrial production (Chapter 11), applications in the nuclear fuel cycle (Chapter 12), and recycling or waste treatment (Chapter 14). Analytical applications are briefly summarized in Chapter 13. The last chapters, Chapters 15 and 16, describe some newer developments in which the principle of solvent extraction has or may come into use, and theoretical developments. 

There followed a brief discussion of equipment for carrying out solvent extraction in industrial practice, both by stagewise and differential contact. Some of the first principles for the design of differential contactors were outlined and the part played by the efficiency of extraction in continuous equipment was discussed. Finally there was an outline of methods for the control of solvent loss which forms probably the most important environmental aspect of the application of solvent extraction. 

When hydrophobic membranes are used (olefins are preferred because of their low cost), the aqueous absorbent cannot penetrate through the pores and the membrane is gas filled whereas if hydrophilic membranes are employed, the membrane is liquid filled (Figures 38.1 and 38.2). Latter situation is preferred only if the reaction between the gaseous species and the absorbent solution is fast or instantaneous if not, it is better to work with a gas-filled membrane, to reduce mass-transfer resistances. The module design and flow configuration also play an important role in defining the membrane contactors efficiency. This aspect is discussed in detail in Section 38.5. 

To simulate the effects of reaction kinetics, mass transfer, and flow pattern on homogeneously catalyzed gas-liquid reactions, a bubble column model is described [29, 30], Numerical solutions for the description of mass transfer accompanied by single or parallel reversible chemical reactions are known [31]. Engineering aspects of dispersion, mass transfer, and chemical reaction in multiphase contactors [32], and detailed analyses of the reaction kinetics of some new homogeneously catalyzed reactions have been recently presented, for instance, for polybutadiene functionalization by hydroformylation in the liquid phase [33], car-bonylation of 1,4-butanediol diacetate [34] and hydrogenation of cw-1,4-polybutadiene and acrylonitrile-butadiene copolymers, respectively [10], which can be used to develop design equations for different reactors. 

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