Analysis of Crystal Size Dispersion Effects in a Continuous Coiled Tubular Crystallizer: Experiments and Modeling

Continuous processing gains importance in the fine chemical and pharmaceutical industries where crystallization is an important downstream operation. Seeded cooling crystallization of the l-alanine/water system was investigated under similar conditions, i.e., temperature interval, cooling rate, and seed material, both in a stirred batch vessel and in a continuous plug flow crystallizer in the coiled flow inverter (CFI) design with horizontal helical tube coils (ID = 4 mm) and frequent 90° bends of the coils. Short-cut calculations based on characteristic time scales and the Damköhler number allow for comparing the batch and continuous crystallization processes. The experimental results reveal crystal growth and growth rate dispersion to be dominating on the product crystal size distribution (CSD). However, at low flow rates of approximately 31 g min–1, a moving sediment flow of the slurry was present in the CFI crystallizer, resulting in further size dispersion effects. Elevated flow rates of approximately 40 g min–1 resulted in a more homogeneous suspension flow and a product CSD comparable to batch quality. Simulation studies based on a population balance equation model strengthen the hypothesis of the solid phase residence time distribution (RTDS) to be more spread in the moving sediment flow regime, leading to a wider product CSD.