Performance improving with temperature in liquid–liquid extraction using cumene–isobutyric acid–water chemical system

The performance of single drops was investigated in liquid–liquid extraction while temperature was changed within the range of 15–40 °C. The recommended system of cumene–isobutyric acid–water with mass transfer resistance mainly in aqueous phase was used. An average enhancement of 75.6% in the rate of transfer was revealed. The extraction efficiency is the most influencing term due to molecular diffusivity enhancement. For modeling, a simple correlation was proposed for the effective diffusivity in Newman's equation, while continuous phase mass transfer coefficient was directly included. Using this model, relative deviation of the overall mass transfer coefficient was within only ±5.6%.