Liquid-Liquid Custom Mixer-Settler Technology Development and Piloting

Hatch是一家全球性的多学科工程公司，为包括采矿、选矿和金属行业在内的各种行业提供服务。2012年，加拿大这一部门对国内生产总值的贡献约为526亿美元。液-液萃取是采矿和选矿工业中的重要单元操作。在液-液萃取中，溶质(金属)的转移是通过接触两种不相容的液体发生的，通常是水和有机溶剂。通过萃取剂将金属从水相转移到有机相。金属提取行业传统技术的缺点包括使用机械搅拌器，产生大范围的液滴尺寸，增加停留时间，大量昂贵的有机溶剂库存，以及大型沉淀罐。此外，大量有机溶剂的使用增加了工厂占地面积，降低了工厂安全，增加了对环境的影响，而且由于环境法规，必须回收有机溶剂，这给过程带来了额外的成本。在这项拟议的NSERC应用研究发展拨款中，谢里登学院和哈奇有限公司正在寻求通过设计和建造定制的混合器和沉淀器来解决这些问题，以改善混合性能并最大限度地减少分离时间。通过使用这项新技术，预计会有更高的特定处理率，从而显著减少工厂占地面积和有机库存。此外，这项拟议的项目将产生一种新技术，降低资本和运营成本，并提高安全性。谢里登将受益于聘请应用科技学院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，并创造出准备就业的毕业生。

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.