Particle Technology and Fluidization

Application of ultrasound for start-up of evaporative batch crystallization of ammonium sulfate in a 75-L crystallizer

  1. Richard Lakerveld1,*,
  2. Nelleke G. Verzijden1,
  3. Herman Kramer1,
  4. Peter Jansens1,
  5. Johan Grievink2

Article first published online: 22 MAR 2011

DOI: 10.1002/aic.12553

Issue

AIChE Journal

AIChE Journal

Volume 57, Issue 12, pages 3367–3377, December 2011

Additional Information

How to Cite

Lakerveld, R., Verzijden, N. G., Kramer, H., Jansens, P. and Grievink, J. (2011), Application of ultrasound for start-up of evaporative batch crystallization of ammonium sulfate in a 75-L crystallizer. AIChE J., 57: 3367–3377. doi: 10.1002/aic.12553

Author Information

  1. 1

    Dept. of Process and Energy, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

  2. 2

    Dept. of DelftChemTech, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

*Dept. of Process and Energy, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 4 NOV 2011
  2. Article first published online: 22 MAR 2011
  3. Accepted manuscript online: 18 JAN 2011 10:34AM EST
  4. Manuscript Revised: 1 DEC 2010
  5. Manuscript Received: 14 JUN 2010

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Keywords:

  • crystallization;
  • ultrasound;
  • seeding;
  • sonocrystallization;
  • nucleation

Abstract

A positive effect of ultrasound on crystallization has been shown for many applications especially on small scale. Predictable scale-up of sonocrystallization is a challenge due to the inherent dependency of ultrasound on scale. The presented research discusses the experimental application of ultrasound to induce nucleation at low supersaturation for start-up of evaporative batch-wise crystallization of ammonium sulfate in a 75-L draft tube (DT) crystallizer. A comparison is made with a conventional start-up procedure using primary nucleation or seeding. Ultrasound is applied in two geometrically different vessels of 1.2-L connected to a 75-L DT crystallizer. Application of ultrasound for start-up of a 75-L DT crystallizer shows that an optimum amount of ground seeds is better capable to suppress nucleation. A challenge for future research is to improve the efficiency of ultrasound to produce a large number of nuclei for start-up of batch crystallization at larger scale. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2011

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