Effect of cooling mode on product crystal size in seeded batch crystallization of potassium alum

Abstract

Potassium alum was crystallized by seeding in a batch crystallizer under controlled and natural cooling modes. Regardless of the cooling mode, the product crystal size distribution (CSD) became bi-modal at low seed concentrations because of enormous secondary nucleation. The mean mass size of the product was smaller for the natural cooling mode compared to that for the controlled cooling mode with more intensive secondary nucleation. On the other hand, at high seed concentrations, the product CSD became uni-modal with the same mean mass size for both cooling modes, where the crystallization was dominated by seed growth. The low supersaturation caused by the growth of enough seeds plays a key role to produce uni-modal size distribution with suppressed nucleation. Adhering of small crystals (secondary nuclei) to growing seed crystals is also considered to be another mechanism for generating uni-modal CSD.