Production of size-reduced sodium chloride crystalline particles using seed crystals generated by Taylor–Couette vortex

To prevent excess ingestion of salt, methods for reducing the particle size of sodium chloride (NaCl) to promote dissolution are of interest. We investigated anti-solvent crystallization and the addition of seed crystals for reducing particle size, which is typically on the order of several hundred micrometers. Anti-solvent crystallization is suitable for producing crystals measuring < 50 µm in size. Therefore, we used a Taylor–Couette (TC) crystallizer that generates small crystals with a uniform particle size to produce seed crystals. The seed crystal slurry was suspended in an anti-solvent. We conducted two experiments by adding the anti-solvent to an NaCl aqueous solution and by adding an NaCl aqueous solution to the anti-solvent. As a result, cubic NaCl crystalline particles with a smooth surface and an average particle size (D50) of 66.5 µm were successfully obtained using a seed crystal slurry prepared via the TC vortex.