Assessment of the Hydrodynamic Velocities for Liquid-Liquid Standard Systems in a New Agitated Extractor with Non-Structural Packing

To support the scale-up and design of industrial extraction columns, this research collected 112 experimental data points for hydrodynamic parameters, slip velocity (Vslip), and characteristic velocity (Vk), utilizing three standard liquid-liquid systems in a novel mechanically agitated column randomly packed with ceramic packing. The impacts of operational conditions, including the dispersed and continuous phase velocities (Vd and Vc) as well as the mixing rate (N), on Vslip were surveyed. Since no empirical correlations have been reported for the present extractor and prior models for rotary columns were neither reliable nor accurate, a new empirical correlation for Vslip was proposed, expressed in terms of dimensionless groups, that achieves high predictive accuracy (AARE = 7.64%, R2 = 0.8415). Likewise, analysis of the Vk data yielded a semi-empirical correlation with an AARE of 5.35% and R2 of 0.9505. Furthermore, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was employed to develop a quadratic model for Vslip that incorporates the impacts of Vd, Vc, N, and interfacial tension (σ). The resulting model exhibited excellent predictive capability (AARE = 4.78%, R2 = 0.9689), supporting its use in the optimization and design of the current extractor.