Quantification of Iodine Mass Transfer and Height of Emulsion Phase in “Emulsion-flow” Column

“Emulsion-flow” is a unique regime of counter-current contact between aqueous and organic phases in a column extractor. The operation enables fast mass transfer as well as stable dropwise counter-current of both phases in a simple column-type apparatus. While those advantages have been reported, prediction of the column performance has been difficult because of the lack of correlation with mass transfer coefficient and interfacial area. This study suggests correlation with overall aqueous phase mass transfer capacity coefficient, Kwa and the height of emulsion phase, H for various operating conditions. In iodine extraction, velocity of organic phase had a stronger effect on H. Furthermore Kwa was correlated with a root of H. This fact suggests that the velocity of the organic phase plays a major role in mass transfer for the case of emulsion-flow. Correlations suggested in the present study are important for rational design and scaling up of emulsion-flow columns.