AGGLOMERATION IN A CONTINUOUS MSMPR CRYSTALLIZER

Experimental responses from crystallization of copper sulfate pentahydrate, nickel ammonium sulfate, potassium sulfate, and soy protein in continuous MSMPR crystallizers were used to determine simultaneously crystal growth and nucleation rates and agglomeration kernels. Measured product crystal size distributions at steady state for all these systems were transformed into crystal volume coordinates to use two methods: moments analysis and optimization procedure for parameter characterization. An iterative nonlinear parameter estimation by optimization procedure was used to deduce the kinetic rate parameters in the solution of the agglomeration model in crystal volume coordinates, extended from the analysis by Liao and Hulburt (1976), from the translated data set for the product crystals. The kinetic results obtained for the copper sulfate pentahydrate system were correlated in terms of power law kinetic expressions depicting the effect of significant observable variables.