KARR® Column

Liquid-Liquid Extraction Equipment

 Liquid-Liquid Extraction
Is a separation technique in which a compound is
pulled from solvent A to solvent B where solvents A
and B are not miscible. It falls right behind
distillation in the hierarchy of separation methods.
Koch Modular

Our Extraction Technology Group, specialized the design

and supply of liquid-liquid extraction equipment
engineered to fulfill the chemical, pharmaceutical,
petrochemical, biotech, flavour and fragrance industries’
increasingly challenging purification requirements.
KARR® Column
Extraction frequently involves additional steps
to recover and recycle the solvent.
Our product is demonstrated in a form of
agitated extraction. It has solid efficiency,
turndown capability, uniform shear mixing,
and is best suited for systems that emulsify. 
About 3% of the operating cost is in the
extractor, with the remaining 97% in solvent
recovery. Also, the majority of the capital cost
is in the equipment downstream of the
extraction column.
KARR® Column
During the pilot plant tests, the extractor
separation performance is measured over a
range of flow rates, solvent to feed ratios
and effective heights. If the extractor
selected is agitated then the agitation
speed is also varied.
At each flow rate, the agitation is increased
until the flood point is reached. From this
data, the conditions that give the optimum
volumetric efficiency are determined.
Scale up to Commercial Size

Any scale-up procedure must determine how diameter

varies with throughput and

How stage efficiency varies with diameter.

For the agitated columns, there is an additional

parameter to be determined, namely how the power
input varies with column size.

Finally the extractor is sized with the active zone

height, together with the top and bottom settler zones
and instrumentation for control of the column
interface.
Reasons to Use KARR® Column
4
Energy
requirements of
3 distillation are
prohibitive
The material is
2 heat sensitive
and non-volatile

Break
1 azeotropes

Separation not
feasible by
distillation