A fast and reliable algorithm has recently been published for the simulation of the unsteady-state behaviour of interacting liquid-liquid dispersions, in single continuous and batch stirred vessels. It gives the full trivariate description: drop volume, solute concentration and age, using a population balance approach. It accepts virtually any hydrodynamic interaction kernel, any mass transfer model, does not introduce hypotheses other than those of the underlying mathematical models and is significantly fast.

A streamlined version of the algorithm, applicable to oscillating drop mass transfer behaviour, simplifies and accelerates the already fast previous one and provides meaningful, precise dynamic simulations of the full drop size distribution as well as the mean and standard deviation of the solute concentration distribution within each drop fraction.

The applicability of the algorithm in the operation and control of some liquid-liquid contactors in real mass transfer processes may thus be foreseen, as well as the extension of the present method and algorithm to the case of more complex agitated liquid-liquid contactors, such as columns. In this work we give an overview of the difficulties associated with liquid-liquid simulation of agitated dispersions and we discuss the application of the streamlined version of our algorithm to the Kuhni pilot column of the Technical University of Munich. The need and the strategy for the development of a parallel version of the algorithm is also outlined.

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