Continuous Droplet-Based Liquid-Liquid Extraction of Phenol from Oil

Abstract

Multiphase droplet-based and continuous liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) of phenol from oil is studied in a low width-to-height aspect ratio polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA)-based microchannel reactor. The extraction efficiency of phenol from the dispersed phase consisting of silicone oil to the external continuous water phase is studied as a function of the flow rate ratio of the two immiscible phases. This paper demonstrates that for enhancing the extraction efficiency of phenol from silicone oil to water in droplet-based microfluidic reactors, a low flow rate ratio of the external continuous phase, Q c , to dispersed oil phase, Q d , is preferable.

Safe and cost-effective rapid-prototyping of multilayer PMMA microfluidic devices

“…Due to its low cost, optical transparency and the availability of a range of processing methods, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) has been adopted for many microfluidic applications (Das et al 2015;Pagaduan et al 2015). Compared to silicon-based materials used for microfluidic applications, PMMA is less fragile and does not require expensive manufacturing techniques.…”

Fab on a Package: LTCC Microfluidic Devices Applied to Chemical Process Miniaturization

“…At the contacting interface a diffusion gradient is established allowing the material diffusion from the highest concentration liquid to the lower one. Different microfluidic approaches have been used, as an example H channels configuration [ 55 ] and droplet based liquid-liquid extraction devices [ 56 , 57 ] can be mentioned. Hydrodynamic flow focalization could be used in order to improve the diffusion process due to the increase in the fluid-fluid cross section area ratio.…”

Substance transfer behavior controlled by droplet internal circulation

“…Micro-PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) technology is the main experimental method used to explore the droplet's internal flow field [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]; and numerical methods include the CFD method [14][15][16][17][18][19], Lattice Boltzmann method [20,21], immersed-boundary [22], etc. ; and the research systems include absorption [23], extraction [24][25][26], mixing [27,28], reaction [29,30], condensation [31], evaporation [32,33], functional materials [34,35] and double emulsion droplet [36], etc. These reported studies reveal the existence of vortices within the droplet are crucial for enhancing mixing and improving the mass transfer across the interface.…”