The separation efficiency/capacity of a large number of liquid−liquid dispersions has been investigated over a wide range of physical properties: 100 < Δρ < 625 kg/m 3 , 3 < σ < 58.3 mN/m, 0.3 < μ C and μ D < 12.2 mPa•s. For gravity separation, phase disengagement experiments were performed in a 100 mL measuring cylinder. The centrifugal separation was carried out in different sizes of annular centrifugal extractors (ACE) with rotor sizes ranging from 30 to 250 mm over a rotor speed of 6.28 rad/s < N < 314.15 rad/s. The rotor speed translated into power consumption over the range of 20−600 kW/m 3 . A novel data driven correlation containing physical properties and separation forces has been developed using Random Forest technique for dispersion number. The developed correlation could be used for the design of gravity or centrifugal separators.

The annular centrifugal extractor is one of the robust stage-wise solvent extraction contactors. In a multistage operation, failure of any single stage leads to the stoppage of the entire annular centrifugal extractor cascade. The present work describes the design modifications incorporated in a centrifugal extractor cascade system to ensure smooth operation in the event of any single-stage failure in the cascade. In this work, the interstage inclined overflow line performance has been compared with the other designs reported in the literature. Three different experimental setups were tested: (i) inclined overflow line, (ii) end-stage centrifuge with inclined overflow line, and (iii) horizontal overflow line. The flooding experiments were conducted, and results show that the performance of the inclined overflow line along with the inclusion of the end-stage centrifuge is superior to the other experimental setups. This design would help to complete the extraction process without shutting down the entire cascade.

The main selection criterion for pumps in reprocessing applications is the absence of any moving parts or the moving parts not having any direct contact with the process fluid. There are different types of fluidic pumps such as vortex diode, reverse flow diode, etc. In this work, a new design of helical coil fluidic pump has been developed and demonstrated. Helical coils are widely used in process industries as heat exchangers, reactors, motionless mixers, etc. It is for the first time that the authors are proposing the use of helical coil as a fluidic pump based on its inherent property of high pressure drop as compared to a straight tube.The main objective of this work is to develop an alternate pumping system for reprocessing applications to replace the conventional air lift pump. The helical coil based fluidic diode pump was made up of SS 304 seamless pipe (pipe inner diameter is 9.5 mm) with a 36 mm diameter of helical coil and pitch of 14 mm. In this work, friction factor for the given helical coil was measured from pressure drop experiments. This information was also useful for understanding the transition of the laminar to turbulent region. In order to propose the operating region, the pumping capacity was measured for the helical coil based fluidic pump at different operating conditions. Experimental results show that the proposed hardware is able to pump up to 54 dm 3 /h. Recommendations have been made for proposing an optimum design.