Hydrodynamic Investigation on the Solvent Extraction of Copper by means of Membrane Contactors Using Computational Fluid Dynamics CFD

Extraction of heavy metals by membrane contactors was theoretically investigated in this study. As a case study, extraction of Cu2+ with a kerosene solution of di(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) was studied. Simulations were performed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) of mass and momentum transfer in all subdomains of a circular membrane contactor. The membrane contactor consists of three sections: lumen, membrane and shell side. Conservation equations were derived for Cu2+ in the membrane contactor and were solved numerically based on finite element method (FEM). The distribution profiles of velocity, concentration, and pressure were obtained for the solute. Simulation results showed an extraction efficiency of 85.8% for Cu2+ while pressure drop is not appreciable along the membrane contactor. Furthermore, results of this study revealed that CFD is a viable tool for the simulation of solvent extraction process via membrane contactors.