Ai. Alonso et al., Experimental and theoretical analysis of a nondispersive solvent extraction pilot plant for the removal of Cr(VI) from a galvanic process wastewaters, IND ENG RES, 38(4), 1999, pp. 1666-1675
The scale-up of a chemical process from the results obtained in a laborator
y scale involves a high degree of uncertainty. Experimental tests in pilot
plants are therefore necessary in order to decrease that uncertainty. When
the processes are not simple, these experimental tests should be supplement
ed by simulation studies which are a highly useful tool in the analysis of
a chemical plant. A nondispersive solvent extraction (NDSX) plant includes
two processes, extraction and stripping, coupled by an organic phase. Becau
se of this fact, the variables of the system are interrelated, making the p
rediction of the behavior of the whole system difficult. Because of this co
mplexity, in this work, the behavior of a NDSX pilot plant has been experim
entally and theoretically analyzed. The removal and recovery of chromium(VI
) from wastewaters of a galvanic process have been used as a case study for
the simulation and experimental analysis of the NDSX process. The mathemat
ical model consists of nonlinear partial differential equations which are s
olved using the process simulator gPROMS. Once the suitability of the propo
sed model and parameters for the description of removal and concentration o
f Cr(VI) in the NDSX pilot plant was checked, the simulation was used to pe
rform a sensitivity analysis to operating variables such as flow rates, vol
umes, total carrier concentration, and initial complex species concentratio
n. The theoretically predicted behavior was checked with some experimental
results, and a satisfactory performance of the pilot plant was achieved.