Estimation of secondary nucleation kinetics of benzoic acid in batch crystallizer

Abstract

The nucleation and growth kinetics of benzoic acid were determined in a population balance model, describing the seeded batch antisolvent crystallization process. The process analytical technologies (PATs) were utilized to record the evolution of chord length distributions (CLDs) in solid phase together with the concentration decay in liquid phase, which provided essential experimental information for parameter estimation. The model was solved using standard method of moments based on the moments calculated from CLDs and solute concentration. A developed model, incorporating the nucleation and crystal growth as functions of both supersaturation and solvent composition, has been constructed by fitting the zeroth moment of particles and concentration trends. The determined kinetic parameters were consequently validated against a new experiment with a different flow rate, indicating that the developed model predicted crystallization process reasonably well. This work illustrates the strategy in construct a population balance model for further simulation, model-based optimization and control studies of benzoic acid in antisolvent crystallization.