Premium
Slug Flow of Ionic Liquids in Capillary Microcontactors: Fluid Dynamic Intensification for Solvent Extraction
Author(s) -
Scheiff F.,
Holbach A.,
Agar D. W.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
chemical engineering and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.403
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1521-4125
pISSN - 0930-7516
DOI - 10.1002/ceat.201200600
Subject(s) - ionic liquid , slug flow , extraction (chemistry) , heptane , chemistry , mass transfer , alkyl , solvent , capillary action , aqueous solution , chromatography , flow (mathematics) , chemical engineering , materials science , organic chemistry , two phase flow , mechanics , composite material , catalysis , engineering , physics
For merging two facets of process intensification, namely, slug flow in microcapillaries and ionic liquid extraction, the fluid mechanic stability of organic‐ionic liquid slug flow is mapped for [EMIM] [Alkyl‐SO 4 ] and [Alkyl‐MIM] [Ntf2] in 0.5–1.0 mm ID plastic capillaries. The choice of the ionic liquid solvent is restricted by physical properties. The internal circulation within ionic liquid slugs is found to be slower by a factor of 2–10 compared to aqueous slugs, but is accelerated by optimizing velocity, temperature, and wall material. Extraction of acetic acid from n ‐heptane with EMIM ethyl sulfate is proposed as a system to verify the contribution of internal circulation to mass transfer. In the long run, this research affirms the fluid dynamic feasibility of microcapillary slug‐flow extraction with ionic liquids.