We were asked to extract benzoic acid from a kerosene-benzoic acid mixture. This was to be done using the stirred liquid-liquid extraction column in the senior laboratory. Fresh water was used as the continuous phase in the extraction. We were asked to measure the benzoic acid concentrations of the feed, raffinate, and extract streams. These measurements were to be made at several different steady-states. The number of theoretical stages and the height of the theoretical stages (HETS) was also to be determined. Because the liquid-liquid extraction column had not been used in several years our assignment also included discussing any problems with the process and possible solutions. The discussion of equipment, results, and experimental procedure will be discussed in the following paper entitled "Liquid-Liquid Extraction.Even though the process had not been used in several years, everything worked very well. The flow meter used to measure the water flow rate had a small leak which was easily remedied using a bucket. One of the storage tanks still had approximately 400 liters of kerosene with a benzoic acid concentration of 0.00208 (gm/mL). Using this as a feed for the process, concentrations of benzoic acid in the aqueous extract were found to be 0.00109 (gm/mL) and 0.000783 (gm/mL) for two separate steady state experimental runs. The flow rates of the kerosene feed for the two steady states were 0.361 (gal/min) and 0.157 (gal/min) respectively. The number of theoretical stages for a flow rates of 0.361 (gal/min) and 0.157 (gal/min) were determined to be 1.76 and 0.87 stages respectively. With the height of the column equal to 48.9 inches the HETS for the two steady state conditions were 27.71 inches and 56.42 inches respectively.Transferring the benzoic acid from the kerosene into the water was accomplished without any major problems. The equipment worked very well except for minor problems with the water flow meter. Af...
