Hydrodynamic Performance of a Pulsed Solvent Extraction Column with Novel Ceramic Internals: Holdup and Drop Size

Chloride in the extraction of lithium from brine in salt lakes and the separation of rare earth elements are both very corrosive to stainless steel extraction column internals, which is a significant problem in large scale production. The hydrodynamics of two types of novel anticorrosive ceramic internals, the hybrid ceramic internal and ceramic plate, are designed and tested under pilot plant conditions in order to be considered for application to these industries. The results show that holdup decreases first and then increases with an increase of pulsation intensity. Increasing dispersed phase velocity also increases holdup. Sauter mean diameter, d32, decreases with an increase of pulsation intensity, while superficial velocities of both phases have little effect. A range of correlations for holdup and d32 from literature are compared to the data, and it is shown that new correlations are needed to accurately predict the performance of the two internal types. Characteristic velocity, which is key parame...