PREDICTION OF MICROMIXING EFFECTS IN PRECIPITATION - CASE OF DOUBLE-JET PRECIPITATORS

Mixing effects are evaluated for double jet semibatch and continuous stirred precipitators by a model which gives the variation of the primary nucleation flux from the mixing conditions. The predicted trends are compared with results of various authors, including those from a new study of calcium oxalate semibatch double-jet precipitation. Satisfactory qualitative agreement is found for the different chemical systems as a function of feed rate, stirring speed and feed locations for calcium oxalate precipitation. Two types of precipitation systems are demonstrated, depending on the ratio added/tank volume, the initial supersaturations and the intrinsic stiffness factor of a given precipitation. The difference between the two types depends on the increase or reduction of the primary nucleation flux by imperfect mixing with respect to the reference primary nucleation flux obtained with perfect mixing.