A agitated vessel of Lewis cell type was used to investigate the effect of physical properties on the mass transfer coefficient for partially miscible binary systems. Some measurements were performed with ternary systems transferring only one solute across two immiscible solvents. The mass transfer coefficients were measured under the conventional contra-rotating conditions which were behaved as if the interface was not rotating for some combinations of agitation speeds in each of the two phases.
The mass transfer coefficient was deduced from solving a steady-state two dimensional convective-diffusion equation with the assumption of sinusoidal motion of eddies. Owing to the complexity of the hydrodynamic conditions near the liquid-liquid interface, theoretical approach was impossible. Thus, the effects of forced turbulence and physical properties on the effective surface renewal time were experimentally investigated. The relation between the mass transfer coefficients and the relevant variables was obtained by conventional dimensional analysis as follow:
Sh_w = 0.93×10^-3 Ca^1/2 Sc_w^0.5 Re_w^0.70 exp(1.60×10^-4 (ν_w /νo) Re_o )