Comparative investigation of membrane systems for crystallization and spherical agglomeration

In this study, two novel spherical agglomeration processes based on membrane systems were successfully implemented to produce spherical agglomerates of benzoic acid crystals obtained by antisolvent crystallization. Two membrane configurations were implemented; a flat disc mounted in a dispersion cell equipped with a mixing impeller, and a second one which uses a cylindrical membrane equipped with a vibrating module which created shear with upward-downward vibration. To optimize the performance of the spherical agglomeration process, the impact of the bridging liquid flowrate, membrane pore size and pore arrangement, as well as agitation rate were investigated. Both systems were successfully used to generate spherical agglomerates with enhanced quality and size distribution at comparable flux conditions. In near future, the membrane systems will be scaled-up to investigate the scalability of the proposed spherical agglomeration system under the optimized operating conditions identified from the current study.