Marcos Fallanza

Computational analysis of facilitated transport in a microfluidic device

Abstract Microfluidic technology reports many advantages to be used in solvent extraction, namely reduced volume of the receptor phase, ease control of the fluidynamics of both liquid phases and thus, improved process performance. This work reports the theoretical, through CFD computational simulation, and experimental analysis of a microfluidic extraction process. For this purpose, the extraction of hexavalent chromium from aqueous phases has been selected as a motivating example. First, the diffusive separation in a system with two homogeneous phases, and then its carrier-mediated facilitated transport through a water-organic interface are analysed. Experimental results fit satisfactory well to model simulations with an error less than 10% demonstrating the reliability of the developed model for both scenarios.