Higher supersaturation leads to greater crystal growth (Fig. 2). However, supersaturation also controls nucleation (B_o), and this limits the freedom of choice of a level of supersatu-ration in the crystallizer: spontaneous (primary) nucleation is caused by exceeding a critical degree of supersaturation and secondary nucleation can vary with the presence of crystals within the metastable solubility field. Secondary nucleation is fed by crystal-to-crystal and crystal-to-wall collisions, and therefore can be controlled by the mechanical energy input to the crystallizer.

Figure 2 Kinetics

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