Collect. Czech. Chem. Commun. 1987, 52, 1186-1197
https://doi.org/10.1135/cccc19871186

Particle size distribution of agglomerated crystal product from a continuous crystallizer

Jiří Hostomský

Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, 160 00 Prague 6

Abstract

Relationships have been derived for the particle size distribution in a continuous crystallizer operating in a steady-state regime, where agglomeration of the primarily generated crystalline particles takes place. The derivation was made for a constant kinetic coefficient of agglomeration (independent of the particle size) and for a negligible particle growth rate. The relatioships are used to interpret the particle size distribution of calcium carbonate precipitated from 0.2 mol dm-3 solutions of calcium chloride and sodium carbonate in a laboratory continuous crystallizer. Anomalous shapes of the size distributions of small particles frequently observed in continuous crystallizers are discussed in terms of the agglomeration phenomenon.