Melt Crystallization

Melt crystallization is an important separation, purification, and concentration technique used in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and food industries. Crystallization from melt is a very powerful separation process for the purification of organic compounds up to very high purities of 99.99 percent. Therefore, the objectives of melt crystallization (i.e., purity, separation, or concentration) are quite often different from crystallization from solution (i.e., purity and defined crystal size distribution). Good background information about the theory of melt crystallization can be found, for example, in Arkenbout (1995), Atwood (1972), Jansens and van Rosmalen (1994), Matsuoka (1991), Matz (1969), Molinari (1967), Mullin (2001), Özoğuz (1992), Rittner and Steiner (1985), Sloan and McGhie (1988), Toyokura and Hirasawa (2001), Ulrich and Bierwirth (1995), Ulrich and Kallies (1994), Ulrich and Nordhoff (2006), Ulrich and Stelzer (2011), Verdoes et al. (1997), and Wintermantel and Wellinghoff (2001). In the following sections, the basics and design examples of plants for melt crystallization will be given.