Experimental plan:

In order to purify the light oil/acetone mixture feed flow rate, the variables of solvent flow rate
and agitator speed were manipulated to achieve the extraction of the light oil from the light
oil/acetone mixture.
In the first part of the experiment, the solvent flow rate was varied, which is the distilled water in
continuous flow. The feed flow rates that were chosen were 3.2 mL/s, 4.2 mL/s, 6.4 mL/s and
11.2 mL/s, while the feed flow rate and agitator speed were kept constant at 3.2 mL/s and 503
rpm. After reaching steady state, three concentration readings were taken for each flow rate in
order to obtain further accurate results.
To be more precise, in a liquid-liquid extraction process, steady state is achieved when the
column is three times the value of the residence time. The residence time is the total volume of
the column divided by the total flow rate into the column [1].
In order to detect the concentration of the heavy phase or the light phase inlet/outlet, a calibration
curve was prepared using a refractometer in order to measure different concentrations of acetone
in light oil, which ranged from 10%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 90%
Due to insufficient data taken from the first week, additional solvent flow rate readings will be
taken of 7.4 mL/s, 10 mL/s and 12.2 mL/s Also, additional measurements of concentration will
be taken from 75% to 90% by increasing increments of 5. Along with two extra trials for each
percent to be able to perform standard deviation.
During the second week, the feed flow rate will be varied from 4 mL/s to 10.7 mL/s by
increments of 2 mL/s. The solvent flow rate and the agitator speed will be held constant at 6.4
mL/s and 503 rpm.
On the third week, the agitator speed will be varied from 400 rpm to 1000 rpm by increments of
50 rpm for each run. The feed flow rate and the solvent flow rate will be kept constant at their
optimal flow levels. The agitator speed will be varied in order to find the highest efficiency.
The fourth and last week will be used to complete any necessary runs or to fix any errors that
might have occurred.
Due to limitations, the temperature of the system was assumed to be at room temperature.