Modelagem entrópica aplicada a processos de cristalização.

Abstract

The analysis of crystallization processes considering an entropic perspective is the primary purpose of this paper. Although the modeling of crystallization processes is well established in the literature, the entropic representation of these processes still needs to be studied. The main goal of this paper was the development of a model of crystallization processes using an entropic perspective and the evaluation of the effect of the process variables in the production rate of entropy of the system. The modeling considering the second law of thermodynamics was investigated, which resulted in a model that represents the entropy generation rate of the crystallization process. The model was applied for a cooling batch crystallization process of potassium nitrate (KNO3). The evaluation of the entropy generation rate as function of temperature was analyzed for different temperature profiles. The results indicate that the model brings significant findings of the entropy of the batch crystallization process, and the lowest cumulative entropy generation rate profile corroborate with the highest crystal mean weight size. In conclusion, the relationship between the crystal size distribution and the entropy generation rate can be used in optimization techniques, where the minimum entropy generation rate is a criterion to improve the quality of the crystal size distribution of the final product.