Countercurrent Liquid-Liquid Extractor

Abstract

A novel countercurrent liquid-liquid extractor is presented and illustrated with applications. The apparatus consists essentially of an assembly of mixer-settlers, feeders, reservoirs, and flow lines that are made of glass or other chemical resistant materials. In operation this multistage assembly rotates intermittently in one direction on a horizontal axis causing the immiscible phases to progress to opposite ends of the unit. Details for the construction of the extractor and its principles of operation are given. Extractors of this design are applicable to experimental work and to the preparation of pure compounds in quantity.

Liquid-Liquid Extractor. Application to Separation of Strontium and Barium

“…Extractors that have some physical resemblances to the one presented here have been described by Craig (2), Lathe and Ruthven (3), von Metzsch (4), Alderweireldt (7), and Wilhelm and Foos (7,8). The apparatus developed by Craig and by Lathe and Ruthven were, however, designed to move only one of the liquid phases in a stagewise manner.…”

“…This small extractor is also convenient to use where the amounts of materials to be processed are limited or where only small amounts of products are desired. The amount of product can be extended, however, by continued operation, and extractors of this design but with larger capacity parts can be used to produce significant amounts of purified material (7) Although this extractor has been employed in the limited a rea of liquid-liquid extraction dealing with metal separations in aqueous-organic systems, it appears that applications to other problems in the broader field of liquid-liquid extraction are entirely within its possibilities (5).…”

Chromatography

“…(3)0) and simpler (83) units have been designed. A modification in which both phases are transported has also been constructed and applied to the separation of zirconium and hafnium by tributyl phosphate extraction (446). Many additional modifications are noted in reviews (287, )27).…”

“…Various inorganic substances have been separated by partition. These include zirconium and hafnium (446), uranium and plutonium from thorium and fission products (282), uranium from diverse ions (256), copper as dithizone complex, from titanium (321), zinc as diphenylthiocarbazone complex (20)), and uranium from stainless steel (132).…”