Tuning the Particle Sizes in Spherical Agglomeration

This paper presents an experimental technique for tuning the size of spherical agglomerates together with a simple model that provides qualitative information on the agglomerate size. Spherical agglomerates of benzoic acid of varying sizes using toluene as the bridging liquid were obtained with a very good reproducibility. The bridging liquid was injected into the crystal suspension via a capillary to control the initial size of the bridging liquid droplets. Experimental results obtained at different operating conditions show a clear correlation between the initial droplet size and the agglomerate size. Agglomerate size noticeably decreases with reducing the capillary size. Horizontal injection of the bridging liquid produces smaller agglomerates as compared to those produced with a vertical injection, while the size of agglomerates is insensitive to the different injection positions used in this study. Agglomerate size decreases along with the increasing stirring rate. The presented model adequately captures the behavior of the system and gives a qualitative agreement with the experimental results.