Molarity model of mass transfer process for extraction in rotating disc contractor column

Abstract

In the rotating disc contactor (RDC) column, liquid-liquid extraction process occurs when one of the liquid phase (drops) is dispersed into another liquid phase (continuous phase). The mass transfer process occurs when the drops flows countercurrent to the continuous phase. In this study, a new mass transfer model will be presented. A number of mass transfer models have been developed. These models are Initial Approach of Mass Transfer (IAMT) model, Boundary Approach of Mass Transfer (BAMT) model and Simultaneous Discrete Mass Transfer (S-DMT) model. IAMT model is a model for mass transfer when the drops first enter the column and move upward the column. BAMT model is a model of mass transfer where the drops already exist in the whole column initially. Meanwhile S-DMT model is a modification of the BAMT model where the concentration of drops in S-DMT model is being determined by using number of particle. In this study, the S-DMT model will be modified in order to develop the Molarity Model of Mass Transfer (MM-MT). In MM-MT, the method to determine the concentration of drops and continuous phase is being substitute with molarity. Molarity is a method in chemistry to determine the concentration of a chemical solution. Since the system that involves in this study is cumene/ water/ acid isobutiric, molarity is used to improve the S-DMT model. A program for MM-MT was developed by using software C++ 6.0. After the program was test, the real simulation of mass transfer process that occurs in the RDC column has been run. The simulation took 500 iterations to complete. The results obtained from the MM-MT simulation were being compared with the result obtained from Separation Process System (SPS). The error for concentration of drops and continuous phase has been determined and this error showed whether the MM-MT model is better than the S-DMT model.