Kinetic Modeling and Simulation of Liquid Antisolvent Crystallization with Agglomeration and Breakage Phenomena

In this research kinetic modeling and simulation of liquid antisolvent crystallization system considering the mechanisms of particle agglomeration and breakage was carried out. The studied crystallization system contained salt, water and ethanol as soluble, initial solvent and antisolvent, respectively. The modeling step deployed combined Crank- Nicholson & Lax-Wendroff methods considering nucleation, growth, agglomeration and breakage kinetic phenomena of particles to solve the population balance equation and predict particle size distribution curve. Also mathematical simulation was performed to the variation of anti-solvent rate. Moreover, a comparison between computational and experimental data considering the mechanisms of particle agglomeration and breakage and without considering the mechanisms of particle agglomeration and breakage is presented. The simulation results which considered the mechanisms of particleagglomeration and breakage were in good agreement with the experimental data. In other words, it was concluded that more accurate model can be obtained by considering the mechanisms of particle agglomeration and breakage. The RMSD of modeling results and experimental data of particle size distribution at two different times (100 and 200 minutes) were 2.89% and 9.87%, respectively.