Sieve plates stage efficiency

Extractors with mechanical agitation, such as mixer-settlers, Kuhni columns, York-Schiebel columns, etc., should be avoided as much as possible. Up to seven theoretical stages packed extraction columns can be conveniently adopted. Sieve-plate extractors can be used up to 20 stages. When a very efficient extraction has to be carried out with expensive solutes, and for reasons of material stability and requirements of low expensive product inventory, we may have to use centrifugal extractors or hollow-fibre extractors. 

Sieve plates are used, similar to those used for distillation and absorption. The stage efficiency for sieve plates, expressed in terms the height of an equivalent theoretical stage (HETS), will, typically, range from 1 to 2.5 m. 

This fraction can be measured along the curved saturated extract line. It should be stressed that the resulting number of stages, 2.2, is only approximate. The fractional number of stages is useful when the actual stages are not equilibrium stages. Thus, if a sieve-plate column with an overall plate efficiency of 25% were being used, the actual number of plates required would be... 

Sieve, valve, or plate trays, tray efficiency 60% pressure drop 0.7 to 1.4kPa/tray orO.3 to 0.65 kPa/theoretical stage (see Section 16.11.2.1)... 

Gas absorption can be carried out in a column equipped with sieve trays or other types of plates normally used for distillation. A column with trays is sometimes chosen instead of a packed column to avoid the problem of liquid distribution in a large diameter tower and to decrease the uncertainty in scaleup. The number of theoretical stages is determined by stepping off plates on a y-x diagram, and the number of actual stages is then calculated using an average plate efficiency. The plate and local efficiencies are defined in the same way as for distillation [Eqs. 

Sieve tray columns have also fotmd an application in staged countercurrent liquid extraction operations. The perforated plates, arranged in much the same way as in gas-liquid contact, act to break up accumulations of the dispersed phase and provide fresh surfaces for renewed mass transfer. Each of the plates, or rather the space between them, is a potential equilibrium stage, but the efficiency E is generally quite low. 

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