(185g) Multiphase Application of 3D Printing for Liquid-Liquid Extractor Design

3D printing enables a paradigm shift in the design of complex equipment, making cost-effective the fabrication of a broad range of unique design features which can produce specific flow characteristics and deliver performance enhancement.  Liquid-liquid  extraction devices such as annular centrifugal contactors must balance their dual roles as both a mixer and separator while also taking into account the residence time requirements of the target chemical process and maximizing throughput.  3D printing provides unprecedented design freedom in meeting these opposing goals with the added potential benefit of lower fabrication costs and greater flexibility in materials of construction.

As guided by insight from multiphase CFD studies and experiments conducted over the last few years, a number of novel centrifugal contactor housing designs have been proposed with the aim of expanding the operational envelope of these devices for application to challenging chemical processes which require increased mixing and residence time to produce efficient separation of desired constituents.  One such process under development is for the mutual separation of lanthanides and actinides as part of an advanced used nuclear fuel extraction scheme under development within the US DOE Nuclear Fuel Cycle Technology Program.

Our experience with rapid prototyping and functional testing of a number of custom centrifugal contactor designs of various equipment scales and using real process solutions will be presented.  Quantitative comparison of various design alternatives will be made based on evaluation of relative holdup and mixing performance.