INCLUDING INTRODUCTION OF DIFFERING-WEIGHT FLUIDS (E.G.,LIQUIDS) FOR COUNTERCURRENT FLOW:
(under the class definition) Apparatus which includes supplying to the bowl two or more fluids, usually two liquids but sometimes a liquid and a gas, which differ in specific gravity and which difference enables radially outwardly movement of the heavier fluid to take place more or less simultaneously with radially inwardly movement of the lighter fluid.
(1) Note. A principle function of the opposing flow is to achieve intimate contact of one fluid with another, which fluids most frequently are two, immiscible or partly immiscible liquids, and which contact is sometimes described in terms of one fluid acting as a solvent upon the other.
(2) Note. The purpose of the intimate contact (occasionally described as "sliding surface contact") and subsequent separation sometimes is to promote a chemical reaction between the liquids, or, occasionally, it may be for transferring one or more components from one liquid to the other.
(3) Note. Separators of the countercurrent flow type are particularly useful in separating liquids whose specific gravities differ so slightly that separation in a conventional separator might prove impractical.
(4) Note. Separating apparatus of the kind peculiar to this subclass is sometimes identified as an "extractor" (where two liquids are involved) or an "evaporator" (where a liquid and a gas are involved).
SEE OR SEARCH CLASS
210, Liquid Purification or Separation, 799, for a process of that class for separating one constituent of a liquid-liquid mixture and wherein the liquids are immiscible.
422, Chemical Apparatus and Process Disinfecting, Deodorizing, Preserving, or Sterilizing,
258+, for apparatus of that class having means for separating or dissolving a material constituent and wherein the means is of the liquid-liquid contact kind and further wherein the means includes a rotating chamber.
