Investigation of the crystallization kinetics of dextrose monohydrate using in situ particle size and supersaturation monitoring

In this work, a seeded batch cooling crystallizer was used to study dextrose monohydrate crystallization using in situ techniques. Experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of cooling profile (natural, linear, and controlled cooling) and seed mass on dextrose monohydrate crystallization. Two in situ techniques, Lasentec focused beam reflectance measurement (FBRM) and an in-line process refractometer for monitoring aqueous crystallization of dextrose monohydrate, were used. The seed mass and cooling profile were focused on, in particular, determining the effect of secondary nucleation and crystal growth rate on the final crystal size distribution, the evolution of supersaturation, and yield of dextrose monohydrate. Experimental results were analyzed to evaluate the kinetic constants from growth and nucleation power law functions with supersaturation. The results showed that increasing the seed mass decreased the level and the peak of supersaturation and increased the crystal growth rate. The experiment performed with natural cooling and with high seed mass resulted in the highest yield. Furthermore, the results showed a significant increase in the final crystal size with decreasing seed mass.