Simulation of fluidity, dispersion and mass transfer in an annular centrifugal contactor

Sano, Yuichi   ; Sakamoto, Atsushi  ; Takeuchi, Masayuki ; Misumi, Ryuta*; Kunii, Kanako*; Todoroki, Kei*; Nishi, Kazuhiko*; Kaminoyama, Meguru*

Concerning an annular centrifugal contactor which has high throughput and separation performance, the effect of operational condition on fluidic and dispersion behavior, which are important to improve the contactor performance, was investigated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis based on the turbulence model, and the calculated results were validated by experimental data. The liquid phase in the annular zone was gradually divided into two regions vertically with increasing the rotor speed and decreasing the flowrate, and the liquid flow moved toward the center of the housing bottom was generated in the lower annular zone under any operational condition. The droplet size of the dispersed phase in the annular zone decreased with increasing the rotor speed and decreasing the flowrate. These calculation results showed a good agreement with experimental data. The CFD analysis considering mass transfer between aqueous and organic phases was also attempted, and it was confirmed that the change of extraction performance with the rotor speed showed the same tendency as the experimental result.