Investigation of Effective Parameters on Phase Inversion Hold-up in Continuous Mixer-settler

In this paper, we studied effect of different parameters including density, viscosity, interfacial tension and solute transfer concentration on phase inversion hold-up. The results showed that change in phase density ratio had no effect on phase inversion hold-up. It also disclosed that the phase viscosity ratio was the most effective parameter affecting phase inversion hold-up and each phase had tendency to increase dispersion by rising viscosity of that phase. When the proportion of dispersed phase viscosity to continuous phase viscosity was more than 1, phase inversion hold-up decreased as the interfacial tension increased or Vice versa. Also, increase in the solute transfer concentration by affecting phases physical properties and electrostatic interaction between drops and continuous phase resulted in increasing the tendency toward both types of inversion and.