GB1044200A - Apparatus for contacting liquids - Google Patents

Abstract

1,044,200. Liquid-contact apparatus; continuous mixing apparatus. R.E. TREYBAL. Sept. 4, 1964 [Sept. 17, 1963], No. 36460/64. Headings B1C and B1F. Apparatus for contacting two incompletely miscible liquids of different densities comprises a vertical column of superposed decks a, b, c, d, e, each deck being divided by a partition 12 into a mixing compartment 10 and a settling compartment 11 and these two compartments communicating by a mixed liquid port 30, each settling compartment further communicating, by light liquid riser 22 and heavy liquid downcomer 16, with the mixing compartments of the decks above and below respectively, each mixing compartment having an agitator 60 and the column having a top inlet 73 and bottom outlet 79 for the heavy liquid and a bottom inlet 77 and top outlet 75 for the light liquid. The apparatus is used for heat transfer between liquids, for solvent extraction processes, for chemical reactions between liquids or for combinations of these processes. In use, heavy liquid flows downwards and light liquid upwards, and the two liquids are mixed in each compartment 10 and then passed into compartment 11 where they separate. Mixed liquid enters each compartment 11 through the port 30 and an adjoining tunnel 31, extending half way across compartment 11, and some of the settled liquids may then return to the mixing compartment 10 on the same deck through light and heavy liquid recycle ports 40, 41. The rotation of agitators 60 on their common shaft and an arrangement of baffles (Fig. 4, not shown), across the ports 40, 41 and the riser and downcomer openings into each compartment 10, effect this circulation. The ports 40, 41 and the riser and downcomer openings through each partition 12 are controlled by gates (e.g. see 43b), the respective gates on corresponding openings being each adjustably clamped to a common vertically movable shaft. These four shafts 45, 49, 53, 55 extend from the top of the column. Ports 30 could be similarly fitted. The whole column is normally filled by liquid, but the outlet 75 may emerge from a side wall to enable a pressurized blanket of gas to be maintained above the upper liquid level, in compartment 11a. By manipulation of the valve shafts 45, 49, 53, 55, one liquid may be made to accumulate in the apparatus, whereby the interface between the liquids in each compartment 11 (visible on gauge 117 for example) may be moved up or down, and "phase-inversion" of the mixtures in compartments 10 effected.