Development and Performance of a Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic Centrifugal Contactor

Abstract

Centrifugal contactors are efficient extraction equipments and have been successfully used in some industrial fields. But many of the extraction systems contain H₂SO₄ or HCl, therefore, centrifugal contactors that their main material is the stainless steel or titanium can be corroded by these acids not to be used in these systems. In order to solve the problem, a centrifugal contactor with 70 mm of the rotor diameter that the main material is the glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) has been developed at Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, China (INET). The mechanical performance of GFRP satisfies the operating requirements of the centrifugal contactor. The maximum total flow of the single stage contactor can reach 200 L/h at suitable operating conditions for H₂O‐kerosene system. The extraction stage efficiency is greater than 95% at suitable operating conditions for both extracting Co²⁺ with 35% N₂₃₅ (tertiary amine)‐20% iso‐octyl alcohol‐45% kerosene from CoCl₂ solution and stripping Co²⁺ with 0.1 mol/L HCl solution from the organic phase (35% N₂₃₅‐20% iso‐octyl alcohol‐45% kerosene) containing Co²⁺.