On modeling column crystallizers and a Hermite predictor–corrector scheme for a system of integro-differential equations

Abstract

Abstract Multistaged crystallization systems are used in the production of many chemicals. In this article, employing the population balance framework, we develop a model for a column crystallizer where particle agglomeration is a significant growth mechanism. The main part of the model can be reduced to a system of integrodifferential equations (IDEs) of the Volterra type. To solve this system simultaneously, we examine two numerical schemes that yield a direct method of solution and an implicit Runge–Kutta type method. Our numerical experiments show that the extension of a Hermite predictor–corrector method originally advanced in Khanh (1994) for a single IDE is effective in solving our model. The numerical method is presented for a generalization of the model which can be used to study and simulate a number of possible operating profiles of the column.