Removal of a saturated amount of
tributyl phosphate (TBP) from
a nuclear reprocessing aqueous waste stream is very important as far
as economy of process as well as waste disposal is concerned. The
present research work describes the detailed mass transfer studies
for the removal of TBP from aqueous stream in a geometrically optimized
pulsed sieve plate extraction column (PSPEC). The original industrial
system, viz., 0.3 M nitric acid–TBP–normal paraffinic
hydrocarbon (NPH), was used for the mass transfer studies. The effect
of operating parameters such as continuous to dispersed phase velocity
ratio and pulsed velocity on the volumetric mass transfer coefficient
was investigated. The effect of operating parameters on the variation
in axial concentration and holdup profile is also studied to evaluate
the dynamic operation of the column for the attainment of steady state.
The experimental results indicate that pulse velocity has a strong
effect on the volumetric mass transfer coefficient, while the effect
of the continuous phase flow rate is greater than the effect of the
dispersed phase flow rate.