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Crystallization kinetics of potassium sulfate in an MSMPR agitated vessel
Author(s) -
Jones A. G.,
Budz Jerzy,
Mullin J. W.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.690321210
Subject(s) - nucleation , chemistry , supersaturation , crystallization , crystal growth , crystal (programming language) , growth rate , dispersion (optics) , particle size , diffusion , population , potassium sulfate , chemical physics , thermodynamics , analytical chemistry (journal) , crystallography , potassium , chromatography , optics , physics , geometry , mathematics , programming language , demography , organic chemistry , sociology , computer science
New data are reported on the crystallization kinetics of potassium sulfate solutions in a laboratory‐scale continuous MSMPR cooling crystallizer. Population density distributions determined down to 1 μm by laser light scattering and sieve analysis are corrected for the effects of crystal agglomeration and shape variation and are used to determine accurate growth and nucleation rates. The crystal growth rate is strongly size‐dependent, second order with respect to supersaturation, with a high overall activation energy. The surface reaction contribution to the growth process is comparatively large, with a diffusion dependency that increases with crystal size and temperature. While largely consistent with most previous studies, a marked deviation is detected in growth rates at small sizes at which very strong curvature is exhibited in the population density distributions. Secondary nucleation rates vary linearly with suspension density, and the zero size order and activation energy are similar to those of growth but significantly are both much lower at a larger effective size. These observations support the view that growth rate dispersion may be responsible in large part for the substantial variation in reported secondary nucleation kinetics.