A liquid-liquid static contactor using capillary phenomena induced by a highly packed fiber bundle

A new static contactor was developed for solvent extraction using capillary phenomena induced among clearances formed within a highly packed fiber bundle. Feeding two immiscible phases cocurrently into the fiber bundle generated a very large liquid-liquid contact area for mass transfer within the fiber bundle without any flow turbulence or drop phenomena. In order to test the characteristics and stability of the fiber bundle contactor, continuous extraction experiments were carried out using the fiber bundle contactor with a TBP-uranyl ion-nitric acid system. The fiber bundle contactor had the same extraction performance as that of an ideal batch extractor with good reproducibility due to the sufficient liquidliquid contact area generated by the packed fiber bundle. A minimum residence time of the aqueous phase within the fiber bundle contactor was required for the extraction system to reach an extraction equilibrium state. In the TBP-uranyl ion-nitric acid system, the residence time was about 1.9 minutes. This contactor was confirmed to be effective enough to perform solvent extraction and to study the extraction kinetics because of the stable and large static liquid-liquid contact area.