Design and Optimization of a Combined Cooling/Antisolvent Crystallization Process

Design and optimization are important steps during the development of crystallization processes. The combined cooling/antisolvent crystallization of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) in ethanol−water mixtures is studied by means of experiments and population balance modeling. Model-based approaches require accurate kinetics and thermodynamic data, which are obtained in this work using in situ process monitoring techniques such as attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy and focused beam reflectance measurement (FBRM). Solubility is measured in situ as a function of temperature and solvent composition using a multivariate calibration model for the ATR-FTIR. Nucleation and growth kinetics are determined based on crystallization experiments by a combination of a population balance model and an integral parameter estimation technique. The model is finally used to calculate optimal cooling and antisolvent addition profiles of the combined cooling/antisolvent crystallization proc...