Liquid-Liquid Custom Mixer-Settler Technology Development and Piloting

Hatch是一家全球性的多学科工程公司，为采矿、矿物加工和金属行业等广泛行业提供服务。2012年，加拿大这一部门对国内生产总值的贡献约为526亿加元。液-液萃取是采矿和矿物加工工业中的重要单元操作。在液-液萃取中，溶质（金属）的转移通过接触两种不混溶的液体（通常是水和有机溶剂）来进行。通过萃取剂将金属从水相转移到有机相。金属提取工业中常规技术的缺点包括使用产生宽范围液滴尺寸的机械搅拌器、停留时间增加、昂贵有机溶剂的大量库存和大型沉降槽。此外，大量有机溶剂的使用增加了工厂占地面积，降低了工厂安全性，增加了环境影响，并且由于环境法规，必须回收有机溶剂，这给该过程带来了额外的成本。谢里丹学院和哈奇有限公司正在寻求解决这些问题，通过设计和建造一个定制的混合器和沉降器，以提高混合性能和最大限度地减少分离时间。通过使用这种新技术，预计更高的特定处理率将导致工厂足迹和有机库存的显着减少。此外，该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，以解决真实的工业工程问题，并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.