Solidification Freezing

Heat transfer involving a change of phase is classified as convective heat transfer even though when the solid phase is involved, the overall process involves combined and interrelated convection and conduction. Heat transfer during boiling, condensation, and solidification (freezing) all, thus, involve convective heat transfer. 

Direct coagulation consolidation Hydrolysis assisted solidification Freezing... 

There is a strong tendency for gallium to supercool below its freezing point. Therefore, seeding may be necessary to initiate solidification. 

To derive the concentration profile for progressive freezing, a material balance is employed for solidification of a small fraction dg of melt, as shown in Figure 1. Integration from the beginning of solidification gives (1,4,8) ... 

Fig. 1. Solidification of differential mass fraction dgoi 2l melt. Mass fraction of impurity in melt is and in soHd freezing out is...

Fig. 7. Constitutional supercooling, (a) impurity concentration profile during solidification (b) actual temperature T and equilibrium freezing temperature T...

Freezing fouling. Overcoohng of a fluid below the fluids freezing point at the heat-transfer surface causes solidification and coating or the heat-transfer surface. 

Salt Brines The typical curve of freezing point is shown in Fig. II-IIO. Brine of concentration x (water concentration is I-x) will not solidify at 0°C (freezing temperature for water, point A). When the temperature drops to B, the first ciystal of ice is formed. As the temperature decreases to C, ice ciystals continue to form and their mixture with the brine solution forms the slush. At the point C there will be part ice in the mixture /(/i+L), and liquid (brine) /i/(/i-t-L). At point D there is mixture of mi parts eutectic brine solution Di [concentration mi/(mi-t-mg)], and mo parts of ice [concentration mol m -t- mo)]. Coohng the mixture below D solidifies the entire solution at the eutectic temperature. Eutectic temperature is the lowest temperature that can be reached with no solidification. 

Rotating-drum-type and belt-type heat-transfer equipment forms granular products directly from fluid pastes and melts without intermediate preforms. These processes are described in Sec. 5 as examples of indirect heat transfer to and from the solid phase. When solidification results from melt freezing, the operation is known as flaking. If evaporation occurs, solidification is by diying. 

Purification of a chemical species by solidification from a liquid mixture can be termed either solution crystallization or ciystallization from the melt. The distinction between these two operations is somewhat subtle. The term melt crystallization has been defined as the separation of components of a binaiy mixture without addition of solvent, but this definition is somewhat restrictive. In solution crystallization a diluent solvent is added to the mixture the solution is then directly or indirec tly cooled, and/or solvent is evaporated to effect ciystallization. The solid phase is formed and maintained somewhat below its pure-component freezing-point temperature. In melt ciystallization no diluent solvent is added to the reaction mixture, and the solid phase is formed by cooling of the melt. Product is frequently maintained near or above its pure-component freezing point in the refining sec tion of the apparatus. 

The rejected silicon accumulates in a layer just ahead of the growing crystals, and lowers the melting point of the liquid there. That slows down the solidification, because more heat has to be removed to get the liquid in this layer to freeze. But suppose a protrusion or bump on the solid (Al) pokes through the layer (Fig. A1.33). It finds itself in liquid which is not enriched with silicon, and can solidify. So the bump, if it forms, is unstable and grows rapidly. Then the (Al) will grow, not as a sphere, but in a branched shape called a dendrite. Many alloys show primary dendrites (Fig. A1.34) and the eutectic, if it forms, fills in the gaps between the branches. 

Freeze-drying, like all drying processes, is a method to separate liquid water from a wet solid product or from a solution or dispersion of given concentration. However, the main difference is that the liquid water is separated by solidification (i.e., the formation of ice crystals) and subsequent vacuum sublimation instead of evaporation. This allows a drying at subzero temperatures which can be advantageous in case of heat-sensitive products. There are two general applications... 

Paraxylene is recovered from Cg aromatics by crystallization. Fortunately, the solidification point of the para isomer is unusually high, -1-55.9°F, considerably above the meta and orthoxylenes which freeze at -54.2 and -13.3°F, respectively. The separation of para from meta by distillation is impractical because the spread in their normal boiling points is only 1.4°F. 

However, in the non-isothermal case the pressure is also high at low injection rates. This is because slow injection gives time for significant solidification of the melt and this leads to high pressures. It is clear therefore that in the non-isothermal case there is an optimum injection rate to give minimum pressure. In Fig. 5.28 this is seen to be about 3.0 x 10 m /s for the situation considered here. This will of course change with melt temperature and mould temperature since these affect the freeze-off time, //, in the above equations. 

We need to keep in mind the disposal costs in all of the mechanisms for solidification. With the first method, keep in mind that free liquids are typically not allowed in most disposal scenarios. And adding too much adsorbent can substantially add to disposal costs. Make this point clear to your field people. As far as using polymerization catalysts and chemical reagents, keep in mind disposal costs. Ensure that you are cognizant of disposal costs of spent catalyst prior to using this scenario. As far as freezing is concerned, consider the cost to keep the contaminants frozen and what the downsides are. The downsides besides cost include measures in case of power failure and use of freezing equipment after wastes have been disposed. 

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