AXIAL MIXING COEFFICIENTS IN RECIPROCATING PLATE COLUMNS.

Since its initial development the open-type reciprocating plate extraction column (RPC) has found wide application in the pharmaceutical, chemical, hydrometallurgical and waste water treatment industries. This paper presents axial mixing data on a 508 mm diameter RPC. Although it was obtained only in single phase flow conditions, it is the first axial mixing data to be published for an industrial scale RPC. Previous work has been carried out with columns no larger than 150 mm diameter. In addition, new data are presented here on axial dispersion in a 25. 4 mm column. The axial mixing data are used in calculating the scale-up criteria and the results are compared with equations.