MSc/PhD Crystallization for Water Treatment research is mainly focussed on under-standing the fundamentals of crystallization processes that are used in industry. The unit has a particular

Crystallization and

Precipitation

Research Unit

Department of

Chemical

Engineering

University of Cape

Town

Rondebosch, South

Africa

7701

Tel: 021 650 4091

Fax; 021 650 5422

Interested candidates should submit:

1. A letter of application,

2. A short CV and

3. The contact details of three referees to:

Mrs Christine Olsen

Crystallization and Precipitation Research Unit

Department of Chemical Engineering

University of Cape Town

Private Bag, Rondebosch, 7701

email: [email protected]

phone: +27-21-650 4091

fax: +27-21-650 5422

Deadline for applications: 30 October 2011

See us on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWsqSRos1LY

And on our webpage:

www.crystal.uct.ac.za

Applications

This is an opportunity to join a dynamic and stimulating research unit. These applied postgraduate qualifications are internationally relevant and

sought after by a range of national and international employers. Travel opportunities and bursaries are available.

MSc/PhD Crystallization for Water Treatment

For enquiries, please contact Professor Alison Lewis or Mrs Christine Olsen

Tel +27 (0) 21 650 4091 Fax +27 (0) 21 650 5422

[email protected] or [email protected]

Our research is mainly focussed on under-standing the fundamentals of crystallization processes that are used in industry. The unit has a particular interest in water treatment and sustainable processes, mainly connected to extractive metallurgy.

Eutectic Freeze Crystallization is a promising new technology that can be used to separate brines into pure water (as ice) and pure salts. It is highly energy efficient and does not de-pend on the introduction of any solvents. 1. Impurities in salt crystals produced by EFC Preliminary work on the causes of impurities in salt crystals produced by Eutectic Freeze Crystallization has been carried out. The project aims to enhance our understand-ing of which systems are prone to salt impuri-ties and which are not. The project will also investigate the effect of crystal seeding on the resulting salt purities. 2. Eutectic Freeze Crystallization for special applications Eutectic Freeze Crystallization can be used for both simple and multi-component inor-ganic brines—this has been shown in the proof of concept phase. This project will investigate the applicability of EFC for special-ised applications such as purification of pre-cious metal brines and waste waters from smaller industries.

RESEARCH FOCUS

Masters and PhD Research projects in Eutectic Freeze Crystallization

Page 2 Crystallization and Precipitation Research Unit

Sodium sulphate recovered from hypersaline industrial brine

Can impurities in salt crystals be controlled by controlling the growth rate?

3. Continuous Eutectic Freeze Crystalliza-tion All of our work so far has been carried out in batch crystallizers. This has given important insight into the fundamentals of the various crystallization processes, but it has left us without a crucial de-sign variable - τ - the residence time. This project will focus on measuring the growth rates of both ice and salt crystals under various conditions, and thus illuminate the required the residence time. for EFC.

Page 3 Crystallization and Precipitation Research Unit

Mixing plays an important role in precipitation processes. Hy-drodynamic modelling is used to characterise complex flows.

Masters and PhD Research projects in Crystallization for Water Treatment

4. Fundamentals of precipitation for water treatment Precipitation is probably the most widely used water treatment method, and is re-markably effective in removing salts from contaminated waters. However, the precipitation of sparingly soluble salts is quite poorly understood, with very little scientific data available. This project will build on previous projects in the Research Unit and will focus on developing methods for measuring precipitation kinetics of sparingly soluble salts.

Calcium oxalate is used as a model substance for studying kinetics of crystal growth.