Stage processes countercurrent multistage

Now consider a multiple-stage process with countercurrent flow of the raffinate and extract phases. Fig. 2B. Countercurrent is the most efficient multistage configuration. One can write a mass balance around the nth stage, as indicated by envelope 1, using the following units for a continuous flowing process ... 

Continuous Countercurrent Multistage Fractional Extraction. The industrial process utilizing the double-solvent principles is continuous and is carried out according to the flowsheet of Fig. 7.18 (2, 15). The feed, consisting principally of a mixture of B and C to be separated, is introduced into the central portion of a cascade of stages, 1 to 1. To facilitate... 

EXAMPLE 12.7-1. Material Balance for Countercurrent Stage Process Pure solvent isopropyl ether at the rate of, = 600 kg/h is being used to extract an aqueous solution of Lq = 200 kg/h containing 30 wt % acetic acid (/4) by countercurrent multistage extraction. The desired exit acetic acid concentration in the aqueous phase is 4%. Calculate the compositions and amounts of the ether extract and the aqueous raffinate L. Use equilibrium data from Appendix A.3. 

A process flow sheet for countercurrent multistage leaching is shown in Fig. 12.10-1 and is similar to Fig. 12.7-1 for liquid-liquid extraction. The ideal stages are numbered in the direction of the solids or underflow stream. The solvent (C)-solute (A) phase or V phase is the liquid phase that overflows continuously from stage to stage countercurrently to the solid phase, and it dissolves solute as it moves along. The slurry phase L composed of inert solids (B) and a liquid phase of A and C is the continuous underflow from each stage. Note that the composition of the V phase is denoted by x and the composition of the L phase by y, which is the reverse of that for liquid-liquid extraction. 

The need for a continuous countercurrent process arises because the selectivity of available adsorbents in a number of commercially important separations is not high. In the -xylene system, for instance, if the Hquid around the adsorbent particles contains 1% -xylene, the Hquid in the pores contains about 2% xylene at equiHbrium. Therefore, one stage of contacting cannot provide a good separation, and multistage contacting must be provided in the same way that multiple trays are required in fractionating materials with relatively low volatiHties. 

In the multistage process described on Fig. 20-14 feed enters one of several crystallizers installed in series. Crystals formed in each crystallizer are transferred to a hotter stage and the liquid collected in the clarified zone of the crystallizer is transferred to a colder stage and eventually discharged as residue. At the hot end, crystals are transferred to a vertical purifier where countercurrent washing is performed by pure, hot-product reflux. TSK refers to this multistage process as the countercurrent cooling crystallization (CCCC) process. In... 

As described in Section 15.2.1, eutectic systems can be purified in theory by single-stage crystallisation, whereas solid solutions always require multistage operations. Countercurrent fractional crystallisation processes in column crystallisers are described in Section 15.4.3. 

Although the most useful extraction process is with countercurrent flow in a multistage battery, other modes have some application. Calculations may be performed analytically or graphically. On flowsketches like those of Example 14.1 and elsewhere, a single box represents an extraction stage that may be made up of an individual mixer and separator. The performance of differential contactors such as packed or spray towers is commonly described as the height equivalent to a theoretical stage (HETS) in ft or m. 

Laboratory Extractors. Pilot-Scale Testing, and Scale-Up. Several laboratory units arc useful in analysis, process control, and process studies. The AKUFVE contactor incorporates a separate mixer and centrifugal separator. It is an efficient instrument for rapid and accurate measurement of partition coefficients, as well as for obtaining reaction kinetic data. Miniature mixer-settler assemblies set up as continuous, bench-scale, multistage, countercurrent, liquid-liquid contactors are particularly useful Tor the preliminary laboratory work associated with flow-sheet development and optimization because these give a known number of theoretical stages. 

In this chapter we have presented multistage systems with special emphasis on absorption processes. We have studied multitray countercurrent absorption towers with equilibrium trays for both cases when the equilibrium relation is linear and when it is nonlinear. This study was accompanied by MATLAB codes that can solve either of the cases numerically. We have also introduced cases where the trays are not efficient enough to be treated as equilibrium stages. Using the rate of mass transfer RMT in this case, we have shown how the equilibrium case is the limit of the nonequilibrium cases when the rate of mass transfer becomes high. Both the linear and the nonlinear equilibrium relation were used to investigate the nonequi-librium case. We have developed MATLAB programs for the nonequilibrium cases as well. 

The domain of the search for an improved separation process was defined by certain criteria (a) isotopic fractionation should be achieved by means of a two-phase, chemical exchange reaction which was amenable to countercurrent operation in a multistage contactor at ambient temperature and pressure (b) the single-stage isotopic fractionation factor for the reaction should be appreciably larger than that for the distillation of Me20 BF3 (c) the molecular species in each process stream should be thermally refluxable—i,e, convertible from one species to the other by the addition or removal of heat alone (d) process materials should be more stable with respect to irreversible decomposition than those used in the (CH3)20 process and (e) the chemical form of the product should permit a ready, quantitative conversion of the separated isotopes to the elemental state. 

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