The two rotating disc contactors are the main units in this process. As shown in the screenshot of the flow diagram, there are two streams entering the columns, and two outlets. The rotation of the discs enhances the mass transfer of the component(s) from one phase to the other.
Apart from the rotating discs columns, the pilot plant consists of vessels, pumps, valves, pipeline and controllers.

The objective of this project was to create a dynamic model of this separation process with an accuracy of ±5% which would be later connected to the Emerson DeltaV DCS.

The model of this separation process unit created by Mobatec fulfills all the specified requirements and it is successfully up and running. The main challenges were to model the mass transfer of one component from one liquid phase to the other defined as a function of the rotational speed and to take into account the role played by the density difference when modelling the relative movement of the phases inside the columns.