Dispersion and Phase Separation Characteristics of Liquid-Liquid-Liquid Systems
液-液-液三相体系的相分散与分相特性

A liquid-liquid-liquid system of two oil phases and one aqueous phase was prepared. The dispersion and phase separation of the triple-liquid phase system in an agitated tank were recorded with a CCD camera system. The results show that different types of impeller have different dispersion abilities. Radial impeller is better in phase dispersion than that of axial impeller. For axial impeller, the dispersion ability of downward flow type is better than that of upward flow. The phase volume ratio has great influence on the dispersion pattern. The phase separation process of the triple-liquid phase system is classified into types A andB, based on the result of difference in the status of phase dispersion. A mathematic model is proposed to predict the type A phase separation process, and the results show that the prediction is consistent well with the experimental observation.