Multiple stages solid liquid extraction.

1. 1200 kg/h of fresh coconut flesh containing

25 wt% oil are to be extracted with pure ethyl ether in a countercurrent multistage
leaching process. It is desired to remove 90% of the oil and the final exit overflow
solution is to contain 70 wt% oil. The retention of solution by the inert solids (oil-free-
coconut flesh) graph is given in Table A. Determine the number of theoretical stages
required to achieve the separation.

Table A : Retention of solution by the inert solids

Concentration 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
(kg oil/kg solution)
Insoluble solid retain 4.2 3.6 3.2 2.8 2.6
(kg solid /kg solution )

2. An extraction of sunflower oil from sunflower seeds is using hexane as a solvent. The
extractor unit is to extract sunflower oil from 1000 kg/hour sunflower seeds. The
untreated sunflower seeds contains 50 % of oil and 2 % hexane. The fresh solvent
mixture contains 10 kg oil and 700 kg hexane. The exhausted sunflower seeds are to
contain 60 kg of oil. Assume constant underflow of N = 2.0 kg insoluble solid/kg solution
retained.

i) Determine the overflow and underflow streams with their respective concentrations
ii) Determine the number of theoretical stages required .
iii) If the process efficiency is 85 %, determine actual number of stages required.

3. Fresh halibut livers containing 25.7 wt% oil are to be extracted with pure ethyl ether to
remove 95 wt% of the oil in a countercurrent multistage solid extraction process. The
feed rate is 1000 kg of fresh livers per hour. The final exit overflow solution is to contain
70 wt% oil. Determine the amount and exit concentrations of overflow and underflow
streams. The retention of solution by the inert solids (oil-free liver) of the liver varies as
per table below :

YA 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

N 4.8 3.50 2.47 1.67 1.39