|
 Most
projects involve a pilot test to provide
the basis for commercial plant design. Unlike distillation, which can
often be designed by simulations alone, liquid-liquid extraction usually has many unknown
factors such as stage efficiency, rates of diffusion, flood point, emulsion formation,
interface behavior, entrainment tendency and capacity data. Small
trace impurities can have a significant impact on all of the above. For
this reason, only actual plant feed and solvent materials are best used for these tests.
Before pilot testing begins bench scale tests are
performed to generate the liquid-liquid equilibrium
data. Besides supplying the equilibrium data, these tests can reveal
information on emulsions or entrainment that help guide extractor
selection.
Information from Testing
-
Bench Scale Tests Provide
- Equilibrium data
- Mixing characteristics
- Settling times
- Extractor type selection for pilot test
-
Pilot Scale Tests Provide
- Data for scale-up -> stage efficiency, throughput, agitation
speed
- Demonstration of the entire process
- Process optimization
- Basis for performance guarantee
We select the appropriate extractor based on our review of
each application. Pilot tests are then run to demonstrate the process
performance as well as provide data for scale-up. These pilot tests are
performed in the same type of extractor planned for the commercial scale.
In some cases, more than one type of extractor will be tested to compare
performance.
See more details of KMPS's
Pilot
Plant Capabilities here.
|
