Liquid-Liquid Custom Mixer-Settler Technology Development and Piloting

Hatch是一家全球性的多学科工程公司，为广泛的行业提供服务，包括采矿，矿物加工和金属行业。2012年，该行业对加拿大GDP的贡献约为526亿美元。液液萃取是采矿和矿物加工工业中重要的单元操作。在液-液萃取中，溶质（金属）的转移是通过接触两种不混溶的液体（通常是水和有机溶剂）而发生的。金属通过萃取剂从水相转移到有机相。在金属萃取工业中，传统技术的缺点包括使用机械搅拌器，产生的液滴尺寸范围大，停留时间长，昂贵的有机溶剂库存大，沉降罐大。此外，大量使用有机溶剂增加了工厂的占地面积，降低了工厂的安全性，增加了对环境的影响，并且由于环境法规，有必要回收有机溶剂，这给该过程带来了额外的成本。在这项NSERC应用研究发展基金中，谢里登学院和Hatch有限公司正在寻求通过设计和建造一个定制的混合器和沉淀器来解决这些问题，以提高混合性能并最大限度地减少分离时间。通过使用这种新技术，更高的特定处理率有望导致植物足迹和有机库存的显著减少。此外，这个拟议的项目将产生一种新的技术，降低资本和运营成本，提高安全性。谢里丹将受益于应用科学与技术学院的化学工程系和机械工程系的学生来解决实际的工业工程问题，并通过创造就业准备的毕业生。

Hatch, a global multidisciplinary engineering company, provides services to a wide range of industries including the mining, mineral processing, and metals industry. The GDP contribution of this sector in Canada was about $52.6 billion in 2012. Liquid-liquid extraction is an important unit operation in the mining and mineral processing industry. In liquid-liquid extraction, the transfer of a solute (metal) takes place by contacting two immiscible liquids, usually water and an organic solvent. The metal is transferred from the aqueous phase to the organic phase by a means of an extractant. Disadvantages of conventional technologies in the metal extraction industry include the use of mechanical agitators that generate a wide range of droplet size, increase in residence time, large inventories of expensive organic solvent, and large settler tanks. Furthermore, the use of large volumes of organic solvents increase plant footprint, decrease plant safety, increase environmental impact and, due to environmental regulations, it is necessary to recover the organic solvent, which introduces additional costs to the process.In this proposed NSERC Applied Research Development Grant, Sheridan College and Hatch Ltd. are seeking to solve these problems by designing and constructing a custom-made mixer and settler to improve mixing performance and minimize separation time. By using this novel technology, higher specific treatment rates are expected resulting in significant reductions in plant footprint and organic inventories. Furthermore, this proposed project will result in a novel technology with lower capital and operational costs and improved safety.Sheridan will benefit by engaging students from the Faculty of Applied Science and Technology's Chemical Engineering Department and Mechanical Engineering Department to solve real industrial engineering problems and by creating employment-ready graduates.