Measurements of flooding in a pulsed sieve plate extraction column were carried out using toluene - water and toluene - acetone - water systems. The influence of plate spacing and initial acetone mass fraction in toluene (in the case of the three-component system) on flooding curves was studied and empirical correlations for the maximum of these curves are presented. In the ternary system, acetone goes from toluene drops to water: the descending phase. An experimental pulsed column, with an internal diameter of 39.6 x 10-3 m and an operational height of 2,670 m, and with stainless steel perforated plates, thickness of 1.5 x 10-3 m, with a hole diameter of 3 x 10-3 m and a free fractional area of 23%, was used. It was verified that the plate spacing and initial acetone mass fraction in the toluene have a great influence on throughput and frequency at the maximum; this influence depends on the phase ratio.
Extraction; separation column; mass transfer
