An Experimental Study of Copper Extraction Characteristics in a T‐Junction Microchannel

Abstract

Abstract The extraction performance in a T‐junction microchannel was investigated experimentally. CuSO 4 /H 2 SO 4 /AD‐100/260 # solvent oil was chosen as the working system. The velocities of the aqueous and oil phases were varied from 0.0016 to 0.45 m s –1 , with Re M varying between 9 and 200. The experimental results show that the extraction process of copper in the microchannel is controlled by both reaction intrinsic kinetics and mass transfer, depending on the characteristics of the reaction and the fluid hydrodynamics. The maximum extraction efficiency is about 0.96, and the apparent overall volumetric mass transfer coefficient ( k app a ) is in the range of 0.02–0.2 s –1 . In addition, the effects of the Cu 2+ concentration and the pH in the aqueous phase, the volumetric fraction of AD‐100 in the oil phase, and the temperature on the extraction performance were investigated in detail.