Experimental Study of Copper Extraction with LIX-64N by Means of Motionless Mixers

The efficiency of copper recovery from lean aqueous solutions with LIX-64N in kerosene was studied. Several motionless mixers were tested, and comparison was made with stirred vessels. Koch motionless mixers are more effective than Kenics type motionless mixers. Tubes packed with saddles also gave high efficiencies, but in general a higher efficiency is associated with a larger pressure drop. Plastic and ceramic packing gave different results, and this seems to be related to the presence of a different continuous phase, even with equal phase ratios and flow rates. For an equal amount of copper recovered, motionless mixers and stirred vessels require the same order of magnitude of power input, but the volume of the static mixer needed is smaller by two orders of magnitude than that for the stirred vessels.