Solvent extraction calculations

Many industrial extraction operations are countercurrent with two stages. Organic solvents have highly favorable distribution coefficients for extracting other organic compounds from water, but two stages prevents excessive losses due to emulsions. Please enter numbers into the boxes above the line to get good yield without using a lot of solvent.

Enter a distribution coefficient greater than one:
Enter the ratio of organic solvent to water:

Fraction of organic compound in spent water in Stage 2:
Fraction of organic compound in solvent in Stage 2:
Total fraction recovered:

What you should learn: It does not take very much organic solvent to get a good yield when the distribution coefficient is large, e.g., 50.

Next you can experiment with solvent ratios and distribution coefficients as you attempt to separate and purify Compound A that was found contaminated by Compound B.

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    School of Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180