INVESTIGATION ON LOCAL AND AVERAGE STATIC HOLD-UPS IN LIQUID-LIQUID SYSTEMS IN A ROTARY DISC CONTACTOR

A rotating disc contactor with inner diameter of 91 mm and 21 compartments was used to investigate local and average static hold-ups in the column. Three chemical systems, including distilled water as stagnant continuous phase and toluene, kerosene, and butyl acetate as dispersed phase, in case of no mass transfer, were applied. Different parameters consisting of drop size and static hold-up were measured experimentally under various operating conditions, and two dimensionless correlations for estimation of local static hold-up as a function of average mother drop size, physical properties, rotor speed, and stage number were proposed in two cases: (1) immovable and (2) rotating rotor discs. Furthermore, two dimensionless correlations were presented to estimate average static hold-up as a function of average mother drop size, physical properties, rotor speed, and number of stages in the column in the two aforementioned conditions.