Scale-Up Studies for Co/Ni Separations in Intensified Reactors

In this paper, the effect of the scalability of small-scale devices on the separation of Co(II) from a binary Co(II)/Ni(II) mixture in a nitric acid solution by an organic Cyanex 272/TBP/kerosene (Exxsol D80) phase is studied. In particular, circular channels with diameters of 1, 2, and 3.2 mm are considered. The results were compared against those from a confined impinging-jets (CIJ) cell with a main channel diameter of 3.2 mm. The effects of total flowrate, residence time, Cyanex 272 concentration, and flowrate ratio on the mass transfer performance were investigated. It was found that at increased channel size, the throughputs were also increased but the extraction percentages remained the same. Higher extraction percentages were obtained by using the CIJ configuration at short residence times. However, for longer residence times, the mass transfer coefficients were similar and capillary channels should be preferred over the CIJ because of the ease of separation of the two phases at the end of the unit. The overall mass transfer coefficients ranged between 0.02 and 0.14 s^-1 for the capillary channels during plug flow and between 0.05 and 0.45 s^-1 for the CIJ cells during dispersed flow.