Solid Dissolution and Liquid Mixing in Turbulent Stirred Tanks

The dissolution of salt particles in turbulent stirred vessels is investigated. A novel method for achieving the simultaneous identification of the liquid mixing time and the dissolution time of salt particles from the conductivity data collected by electrical resistance tomography is presented. The characteristic time of the liquid mixing during the dissolution is found to be either uninfluential or significant on the dissolution itself, depending on the salt particle diameter and the vessel size. The adoption of a combination of literature correlations, which are proved to adequately estimate the two times, is suggested as a simple tool for identifying the minimum particle size for optimizing the dissolution operation.