Analysis of breakage functions for liquid–liquid dispersions

In the solvent extraction process in the mining industry, the drop size distribution produced in the mixing vessel is crucial for the global performance of the extraction process, because it affects the rate of copper extraction in the mixing step and the phase separation in the settler as well. In this work, experimental drop size distributions were obtained in a batch-mixing vessel using a low dispersed phase fraction in a hydryoximes–sodium sulfate system. The data were analyzed using a population balance model neglecting the coalescence terms to obtain appropriate analytical forms for the functions that describe the drop breakage process. From the comparison of the experimental and simulated transient drop size distributions, it was determined that the specific breakage frequency function used has little effect on the evolution of the drop size distribution. On the other hand, the daughter drop density function has a large influence on the shape of the resulting drop size distribution. The most appropriate daughter drop density function is a U-shaped distribution with minimum probability of producing two equally sized daughter drops from the breakage of a mother drop.