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 = x1
y2 = x2
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 Na 2CO3 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

6.10%

6.69%

1.0%

Gangue

14.92%

---

Water

78.98%

93.91%

CuSO4

99%

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