Batch Cooling Crystallization: Supersaturation, Nucleation & Growth
Interactive 3D batch-cooling crystallizer: cool a saturated solution, watch supersaturation drive primary and secondary nucleation and McCabe ΔL growth, and control seeded vs unseeded crystal-size distributions.
This simulator models a real batch cooling crystallizer: a solution charged saturated at a hot temperature is cooled at a controllable rate, pushing its dissolved concentration past the solubility curve into supersaturation. Above the metastable limit, classical-nucleation-theory kinetics spawn new crystals, existing crystals nucleate more by attrition when agitated, and every crystal grows by the size-independent McCabe ΔL law — draining dissolved solute and self-limiting the supersaturation that drives it. Toggle between an unseeded batch, where uncontrolled primary nucleation floods the vessel with fine crystals, and a seeded, gently cooled batch that grows a coarse, narrow crystal-size distribution, exactly the trade-off a process chemist manages on a real production line.
Cool a saturated solution in a 3D batch crystallizer and watch supersaturation drive classical-nucleation-theory primary nucleation, agitation-driven secondary nucleation, and McCabe ΔL crystal growth, with live desupersaturation feedback.
3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install