Design, Development and Testing of Miniature Liquid-liquid Extraction Contactors for R&D Studies in Nuclear Environment

Testing liquid-liquid extraction flowsheets on radioactive solutions at laboratory scale requires specific contactors, that must be as small as possible (to minimize the quantities of reagents) and suitable for use in glove boxes or hot cells. As such contactors are not commercially available, CEA designs dedicated apparatus for its experiments. Two examples of such contactors are highlighted: a stage-wise one (a miniature mixer-settler) and a differential one (the Taylor-Couette column). Both combine similarities with larger contactors that make possible flowsheet extrapolation to industrial scale, and specific features, mainly because of the major role of materials wettability when volumes are reduced.