Crystallizer designs and suggestions for their improvement

The creation and implementation of energy-saving refrigeration technologies is one of the urgent tasks for the development of chemical, food, and biotechnological industries. This task includes the development of new liquid separation equipment by freezing. Such equipment includes crystallizers used in industry. The article presents an analysis of various crystallizer designs, their advantages and disadvantages are noted. Articles of scientific journals, as well as patents, were used as sources of information for the analysis. The analysis of the crystallizer designs included an assessment of the efficiency of their operation, which directly depends on the intensity of heat transfer during the freezing process. Since crystallizers are similar to regenerative heat exchangers, the evaluation of the efficiency of the crystallizers included the amount of heat transferred (in accordance with the basic heat transfer equation) and was carried out according to a number of specific indicators (energy saving during freezing, resource saving during the manufacture of the crystallizer, the desire to reduce overall dimensions and simplify the design of the crystallizer). An example of an indicator is the ratio of energy costs during the operation of the mold to the amount of heat transferred. The analysis allowed to study the general properties and principles of operation of liquid separation crystallizers by freezing. Based on the analysis, the most promising directions in the development of new and improved crystallizers used at enterprises were identified.