SOLID LIQUID

EXTRACTION
 Perrys Chemical Engineering
Handbook

7th EDITION 8th EDITION

Section 18 Section 18

Pages 18-59 to 18-66 Pages 18-55 to 18-59

LEACHING

A unit operation in which a soluble

component is removed from an inert solid by a
solvent which preferentially dissolves the
soluble matter.
 LEACHING
Examples are:

washing of soluble salt from the surface of an

insoluble precipitate
extraction of sugar from sugar beet
extraction of tannic acid from bark
extraction of alginic acid from seaweed
 CONSTANT UNDERFLOW
Assumptions:

Solid B is insoluble in solvent

No solid B in overflow
Steady state operation
Solid B in feed = solid B in any underflow
CONSTANT UNDERFLOW
The characteristics of the adhering solution
leaving a particular stage.

y1 = x 1
y2 = x 2
yN = xN
 CONSTANT SOLVENT UNDERFLOW

If solvent / solid ratio is constant, concentrations are

expresses in
mass solute / mass solvent
Retention = mass solvent retained
mass solid B

L1 = L2 = L3 = LN = L
V2 = V3 = VN = VN + 1 = V
y2 = (L/V) (x1 xN) + yN + 1
 CONSTANT SOLUTION
UNDERFLOW
If solution / solid ratio is constant, concentrations are
expresses in
mass solute / mass solution
Retention = mass solution
mass solid B

L1 = L 2 = L 3 = L N = L
V2 = V3 = VN = VN + 1 = V
y2 = (L/V) (x1 xN) + yN + 1
NUMBER OF STAGES
 LEACHING

Which of the following operations does not involve leaching?

a. dissolves gold from ore

b. dissolving pharmaceutical products from bark or roots
c. dissolving sugar from the cells of the beet
d. removing nicotine from its water solution by kerosene
 LEACHING

The rate of leaching increases with increasing

a. temperature
b. viscosity of solvent
c. pressure
d. size of the solid
 LEACHING

Tea percolation employs

a. liquid-liquid extraction
b. leaching
c. absorption
d. adsorption
 LEACHING

The major problem in leaching is to promote diffusion of the solute

out of the solid and into the liquid. The most effective way of doing this
is

a. to reduce the solid to smallest size feasible

b. to use the countercurrent operation
c. to use cross flow operation
d. none of these
PROBLEM -
SOLVING
PROBLEM NO. 1

Powdered limestone (CaCO3) containing 10000 ppm NaOH is to be

washed in a two step continuous counter current washing system to remove
most of the NaOH. Two cells and 100000 L of water per 10 MT/day of limestone
fed are used. The slurry discharged and removed from the underflow contains
0.091 MT of water per MT CaCO3. Assuming complete mixing and washing, the
NaOH content of the washed and dried limestone in ppm is

a. 0.6
b. 0.5
c. 0.8
d. 0.4
PROBLEM NO. 2

A counter current multiple contact extraction system is to treat 50 tons/hr

of wet beets with fresh water as the solvent. The beets have the following
analysis:
Components Mass fraction
water 0.48
pulp 0.40
sugar 0.12
The strong solution leaving the system is to contain 0.15 mass fraction
sugar, 97% of the sugar in the sliced beets is to be recovered. Determine the
number of extraction cells required, assuming equilibrium between the underflow
and overflow in each cell. If each ton of dry pulp retains 3 tons of water
a. 16
b. 14
c. 15
d. 17
PROBLEM NO. 3

A multiple contact extraction system is to treat 1.25 tons (2500 lbs) per
hour of dry black ash containing 40% Na2CO3 and 60% insoluble matter with 30
gpm of water. If 5% of the Na2CO3 remains unextracted, calculate the number of
ideal stages by the absorption factor method. The mass ratio of insoluble matter
to solvent in the underflow from the stage is 1:2. The number of ideal stages
required is

a. 3
b. 2
c. 4
d. 5
PROBLEM NO. 4

Roasted copper containing the ore as CuSO4 is to be extracted in a

countercurrent stage extractor. Each hour, a charge consisting of 10 tons gangue,
1.2 tons CuSO4 and 0.5 ton water is to be treated. The strong solution produced
is to consist of 90% water and 10% CuSO4 by weight. The recovery of CuSO4 is
to be 98% of that in the ore. Pure water is to be used as fresh solvent. After each
stage, one ton of inert gangue retained 2 tons water plus the copper sulfate
dissolved in that water. Equilibrium is attained in each stage. The number of
stages required is

a. 12
b. 10
c. 8
d. 14
PROBLEM NO. 5

Tung meal containing 55% oil is to be extracted at a rate of 4000 kg/hr

using n-hexane containing 5% wt oil as solvent. A counter current multiple stage
extraction system is to be used. The meal retains 2 kg solvent per kg of oil free
meal while the residual charge contains 0.11 kg per oil free meal while the
product is composed of 15 weight percent of oil. The theoretical number of
stages is

a. 4
b. 3
c. 5
d. 6
SEATWORK
The countercurrent washing operation uses Dorr thickeners for the
recovery of the rich solution. The slurry from the agitators, with the copper in
solution as copper sulfate, is fed to the thickeners at the rate of 300 tons/hr.
According to operating records, the underflow from each thickener retains 1.22
tons of solution per ton of gangue, and the streams have the following
compositions in mass percent. Determine the number of theoretical stages and
the quantity of wash water used.

Feed to Thickener Strong Solution Underflow Leaving

System
CuSO4 6.10% 6.69% 1.0%

Gangue 14.92% ---

99%
Water 78.98% 93.91%
ASSIGNMENT

Problem No. 2
Unit Operations by Brown page 294

Problem No. 23.2

Unit Operations, 6th ed by McCabe page 770

Five solid-liquid extraction equipment