Prof M.

Mazzotti
Thermische Verfahrenstechnik I

liquid-liquid extraction

Liquid-Liquid extraction
An acetaldehyde(A)-toluene(B) mixture is separated in a counter-current extraction column using
pure water. The feed composition is xF,A =0.29. The task is a raffinate purity of xR,A,max <=0.05.
1. Estimate the minimum solvent stream Smin for a feed stream F=300 kg/h (use the triangular
diagram)
2. Calculate the number of theoretical stages for this process for S=1.75Smin . Solve this exercise
using the triangular diagram.
3. Draw the composition of the extract in the triangular diagram and compute the extract stream
E

Prof M. Mazzotti
Thermische Verfahrenstechnik I

liquid-liquid extraction

Figure 1: triangular diagram water-acetaldehyde-toluene

Prof M. Mazzotti
Thermische Verfahrenstechnik I

liquid-liquid extraction

Guideline for the solution

Data out of triangular diagram
From the triangular diagram it can be observed that, at the given feed composition, no ternary
systems can be formed for the raffinate and for the extract. The solubility curve coincides with
the triangles axis, therefore only binary systems can exist. Here below two tie-lines are taken as
example:
- upper tie-line:
- extract: xA,E = 0.5, xT,E = 0, xW,E = 0.5
- raffinate: xA,R = 0.34, xT,R = 0.66, xW,R = 0
- X=246, Y=2444
- lower tie-line:
- extract: xA,E = 0.21, xT,E = 0, xW,E = 0.79
- raffinate:xA,R = 0.12, xT,R = 0.88, xW,R = 0
- X=65, Y=650
with X and Y defined as follows:
X=

g, acetaldehyde
MA xA,R
1000 =
MT xT,R
kg, toluene

(1)

Y =

MA xA,E
g, acetaldehyde
1000 =
MW xW,E
kg, water

(2)

Minimum solvent stream:

In the case of liquid phases immiscibility (solvent and diluent are immiscible), the problem is
similar to an absorption/stripping problem where the McCabe-Thiele graphical method can be
applied. The system can be represented as follows:

Figure 2: scheme of the process

XA,in =

MA xA,F
44 0.29
1000 =

1000 = 195
MT 1 xA,F
92 0.71
3

(3)

Prof M. Mazzotti
Thermische Verfahrenstechnik I

liquid-liquid extraction

XA,out
T =

44 0.05

1000 = 25
92 0.95

F
300kg/h
=
= 251kg/h
1 + xA,in 103
1.195

Smin =

195 25
251kg/h = 21.77kg/h
1960

(4)
(5)
(6)

Number of theoretical stages

Yaus =

T
251
(xA,in xA,out ) =
170 = 1120
S
1, 75 21.77

(7)

This results in 2.8 theoretical stages.

Extract stream

xA =

1+

MA
MW Yout

1
= 0.314

E = (1 + Yout ) W = (1 + 1.12) 38.1 = 80.77kg/h

(8)
(9)

Prof M. Mazzotti
Thermische Verfahrenstechnik I

liquid-liquid extraction

Figure 3: graphical construction