Model development for deactivation of bisphenol-A adduct particles during crystallization under the influence of impurity

A deactivation mechanism was developed to present the influence of 4-tert-butylphenol as a sample impurity on the bisphenol-A (BPA) adduct particles during the crystallization process. 4-tert-butylphenol is an organic sample impurity generally present in the reaction mixture of the industrial production of BPA. Kinetic parameters of growth, nucleation, agglomeration, and deactivation were estimated using the technique of model fitting to experimental data. The population and mass balances were used to model the adductive crystallization of BPA. Experiments were carried out in several plastic bottles as crystallizers in a rotating bath. Liquid and solid phase information during the course of experiments was provided using the methods of gas chromatography, sieve analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. The impurity influence on the solution thermodynamics was investigated by measuring the width of metastable zone in the presence and in the absence of 4-tert-butylphenol. Consistency of the model predictions of size distributions with the experimental data beyond the range where the parameters were optimized revealed the validity of the model and the accuracy of the parameter values. The results showed that traces of impurity would reduce the BPA solubility, widen the metastability zone, increase agglomeration, and deactivate the growth and nucleation sites on the crystals.