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Universty of Cantabria




Advanced Separation Processes
G 787

Bench scale practice
Hollow fiber Liquid Membrane contactor for the extraction of
Iron (III) Chloride Hexahydrate.


Students:
Kraner Barbara
Rodrguez Fernndez Enrique
Ramrez Matsumoto Fernando Noboru

Professor: Dr. Gmez Rodrguez Pedro Manuel


April 28
th
2014


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OBJETIVE

Study the kinetic of the extraction process of Iron (III) Chloride Hexahydrate with ___ as
extractant.


Figure 1.
Scheme of the Bench scale Hollow Fiber Liquid Membrane Module.

METODOLOGY

Since the membrane on the module is hydrophobic the aqueous phase should flow through
the tube side and the organic phase on the shell side of the module. In this way the liquid
membrane works as interface
1. Place 1L of deionized water in the aqueous phase vessel (the one on the left) and ensure
that the pH is 7.

(Why do we have to ensure a basic pH?) so the Iron salt does not precipitate on the
aqueous phase obstructing the tubes of the module.

2. Add 1g of Fe
3
Cl6H
2
O in the aqueous phase vessel and shake it with the magnetic stirrer until
the salt is completely dissolved.


Figure 2.
Solute.

3. Before switching on the left pump, ensure that all tubes are well connected .Make sure you
have an overpressure (looking at the pressure indicators on the left). Also the pressure on the
aqueous phase must be higher than in the organic phase. To ensure that both phases come in
contact
4. Take a sample from the aqueous phase vessel and measure turbidity.
For measuring turbidity, fill the tube for the turbidimeter, place it inside the
3
turbidimeter and wait until the measuring remains stable.
5. Prepare a solution of the organic (metallic flask) + surfactant (smallest flask with blue
label). Add the given concentration of extractant and place it on the organic phase vessel (the
one on the right). Shake it with the magnetic stirrer and switch on the pump on the right.
6. Take samples from the aqueous vessel each 3-5 min.
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RESULTS

Table 1. Turbidity of the aqueous phase during the experiment.

Sample Time Turbidity
[minutes] [NTU]
S0 0 102.31
S1 5 101.05
S2 11 85.5
S3 16 80.11
S4 21 73.4
S5 26 67.33
S6 31 61.32
S7 36 58.05


Figure 3.
Turbidity of the aqueous phase along the experiment.

The kinetic of this process extraction during this stage could be considered as lineal
with a slope equal to 1.32.
Since we did not achieve the equilibrium conditions on our last sample, so these
results are incomplete.

CONCLUTIONS
We observe that turbidity decreases as it was expected.
The kinetic of this extraction kinetic of this process should not be assumed as correct,
for the whole process, since this experiment has not studied all the stages of the
extraction; because the equilibrium was not reached on the last sample. Although we
could conclude that the initial stage of the extraction is well approximated to a straight
line.
y = -1.323x + 102.78
R = 0.9769
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0 10 20 30 40
T
u
r
b
i
d
i
t
y


[
N
T
U
]

Time [minutes]
Turbidity vs. Time
Linear (Turbidity vs.
Time)
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REFERENCE

Stanojevi M. et al. 2003. Review of membrane contactors designs and applications of
different modules in industry. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of Belgrade

Liquid Membrane based extraction with hollow fiber contactors.
http://sschi.chtf.stuba.sk/MembraneLab/Equipment.htm
Accessed: 2/5/2014