TABLE OF CONTENTS It has been mentioned that the separation processes are used quite widely in different areas of industry. Irrespective of the separation object and equipment in which separation is carried out, the these processes combine general problems associated with the tendency to produce pure products with the maximum utilisation of initial resources taking economic efficiency into account.
A large number of methods have been proposed for evaluating the efficiency of the separation processes. The selection of the optimisation criteria on for these processes is still the subject of constant discussion in special literature. The complexity of the current situation is aggravated by the fact that the results of classification may be characterised by different factors: efficiency, extraction, contamination, concentration, the degree of enrichment, selectivity. From the mathematical viewpoint, some parameters are interpreted in different ways, for example, more than 30 equations have been proposed for determining the efficiency of separation. In addition to this, in enrichment, the separation parameters, associated with the separation curve, are used widely. Optimisation on the basis of the separation curve is also characterised by a number of parameters whose physical meaning is often unclear.
Many investigators simply assume that there are no common features between the quantitative methods of evaluation and the separation curves.
Recently, the literature concerned with this problems, has been paying special attention to quantitative parameters and the separation curves have not been used efficiently. This is not always justified and correct.
Therefore, it is important...
