Liquid−Liquid Extraction with an Interphase Chemical Reaction in an Air-Driven Two-Impinging-Streams Reactor: Effective Interfacial Area and Overall Mass-Transfer Coefficient

The theory of mass transfer accompanied by chemical reaction for the pseudo-first-order heterogeneous liquid−liquid reactions was employed to measure the effective interfacial area in an air-driven two-impinging-streams reactor (ADTISR) with spray nozzles. Experiments have also been conducted on the physical extraction of n -butyl formate into distilled water to measure the overall volumetric mass-transfer coefficient experimentally. The latter has been compared with those obtained from the intercepts of Danckwerts' plots. The overall volumetric mass-transfer coefficients obtained by the physical method enabled us to compare the performance capability of the ADTISR relative to mechanically agitated columns. Furthermore, the effects of various operating parameters such as the air flow rate, solution flow rate, reactor's dimensions including reactor's length and diameter, modes of operation, and enhancing effect of impinging streams on the overall volumetric mass-transfer coefficient and the conversion of an aqueous NaOH solution have been investigated.