Experimental Determination of Solid-Liquid Equilibrium Phase Diagrams for Crystallization-Based Process Synthesis

A systematic scheme for the experimental determination of isobaric solid-liquid equilibrium (SLE) phase diagrams at atmospheric pressure is presented. Driven by process objectives and aided by techniques for representing/visualizing phase diagrams, the scheme helps to generate such diagrams exhibiting features (for example, feasible crystallization product region) that are useful for the synthesis and design of crystallization-based process flowsheets. To illustrate the execution of this scheme, the isobaric SLE phase diagrams of two organic systems were measured. These include a system containing phenol, bisphenol A, and water and a polymorphic system consisting of sulfamerazine and dimethyl sulfoxide.