Separation of liquid-liquid dispersions by flow through fibre beds

Liquid-liquid dispersions with drop sizes less than 100 μm cannot be separated using gravity settlers, but need more effective separation tools. In this situation fibre beds represent a relatively simple and low-cost form of pre-separation equipment to enlarge the droplets by drop coalescence as a first step in gravity settling. The paper reports on the state-of-the-art and on new experiments investigating the performance of fibre-bed settlers in relation to the relevant significant parameters, continuing and extending work reported in an earlier paper by Rebelein and Blass.