Mixer-settler

Use of multiple stages allows a longer reaction time and also minimizes the short circuiting of unreacted material through the mixers.

They are also used in the Nuclear reprocessing field to separate and purify primarily Uranium and Plutonium, removing the fission product impurities.

In the multiple countercurrent process, multiple mixer settlers are installed with mixing and settling chambers located at alternating ends for each stage (since the outlet of the settling sections feed the inlets of the adjacent stage's mixing sections).

Mixer-settlers are used when a process requires longer residence times and when the solutions are easily separated by gravity.

In a high-chloride environment typical of Chilean copper mines, a wash stage will rinse any residual pregnant solution entrained in the organic with clean water.