Lecture

Liquid-Liquid Extraction: Principles and Applications

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In course

ChE-310: Fundamentals of separation processes

The course will cover fundamentals concepts of separation processes involving chemical equilibrium and mass transfer. Students will design separation processes widely used in the industry, for the separation of liquid mixtures, gas-liquid mixtures, and gas ...

Description

This lecture covers the principles of liquid-liquid extraction, focusing on the purification of acetic acid from an aqueous solution using 1-butanol as a solvent. The instructor presents a problem involving an aqueous solution containing 1.8 mole% acetic acid, aiming to reduce this concentration to 0.2% through countercurrent extraction. The flow rates of both the acetic acid solution and the solvent are provided, and the instructor guides the audience through the calculations required to determine the number of stages needed for the extraction process. The lecture also discusses the graphical method for calculating concentrations and stages, emphasizing the importance of equilibrium and operating lines in the extraction process. Additionally, the instructor introduces the concept of cross-flow extraction, explaining how it differs from countercurrent extraction and the implications for solvent flow rates and compositions. The session concludes with a quiz to reinforce understanding of the concepts presented, including the identification of key points in the extraction process.

Instructor

Kumar Varoon Agrawal

Expertise Prof. Kumar Varoon Agrawal leads research at EPFL on advanced membrane materials and processes for energy-efficient molecular separations. His work focuses on atomically thin porous graphene film, and two-dimensional zeolite & metal–organic framework membranes that enable selective transport of gases and ions, with applications in carbon capture, hydrogen purification, ammonia separation, and resource recovery. By combining materials chemistry, nanofluidics, transport phenomena, atomistic simulati

Official source

Related concepts (32)

Liquid–liquid extraction

Liquid–liquid extraction (LLE), also known as solvent extraction and partitioning, is a method to separate compounds or metal complexes, based on their relative solubilities in two different immiscible liquids, usually water (polar) and an organic solvent (non-polar). There is a net transfer of one or more species from one liquid into another liquid phase, generally from aqueous to organic. The transfer is driven by chemical potential, i.e.

Extract

An extract (essence) is a substance made by extracting a part of a raw material, often by using a solvent such as ethanol, oil or water. Extracts may be sold as tinctures, absolutes or in powder form. The aromatic principles of many spices, nuts, herbs, fruits, etc., and some flowers, are marketed as extracts, among the best known of true extracts being almond, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, lemon, nutmeg, orange, peppermint, pistachio, rose, spearmint, vanilla, violet, rum, and wintergreen.

Separation process

A separation process is a method that converts a mixture or a solution of chemical substances into two or more distinct product mixtures, a scientific process of separating two or more substance in order to obtain purity. At least one product mixture from the separation is enriched in one or more of the source mixture's constituents. In some cases, a separation may fully divide the mixture into pure constituents. Separations exploit differences in chemical properties or physical properties (such as size, shape, mass, density, or chemical affinity) between the constituents of a mixture.

Solution (chemistry)

In chemistry, a solution is a special type of homogeneous mixture composed of two or more substances. In such a mixture, a solute is a substance dissolved in another substance, known as a solvent. If the attractive forces between the solvent and solute particles are greater than the attractive forces holding the solute particles together, the solvent particles pull the solute particles apart and surround them. These surrounded solute particles then move away from the solid solute and out into the solution.

Solvent

A solvent (from the Latin solvō, "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas, or a supercritical fluid. Water is a solvent for polar molecules and the most common solvent used by living things; all the ions and proteins in a cell are dissolved in water within the cell. Major uses of solvents are in paints, paint removers, inks, and dry cleaning. Specific uses for organic solvents are in dry cleaning (e.

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