摘要
Citric acid is an important organic substance whose marketing concerns various fields. Nevertheless, until 1997 the scientific literature reported little information about the process of crystallization by cooling through which the commercial product is obtained. In particular, the available studies were aimed to investigate only the kinetics of nucleation and crystal growth neglecting some effective aspects of the industrial crystallization in mechanically stirred apparatus. In order to fill that sci-tech gap, the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University ＂La Sapienza＂ of Rome decided to lead a long and meticulous experimental research on the crystallization in discontinuous （batch） of CAM （citric acid monohydrate） in the allotropic form that is stable at room temperature. Due to the number of people involved in that pioneering work, carried out in the historic laboratories of＂La Sapienza＂ （Faculty of Engineering）, and motivated by the publication of related M.Sc. dissertations and research papers, such collective effort was called ＂School of Industrial Crystallization＂. Among the graduate students in Chemical Engineering that 17 years ago participated in that fruitful experience there was also the author who, under the supervision of Prof. Barbara Mazzarotta, had the specific task of assessing the effects on CAM of changing the crystallization operating conditions until their optimization; the achievements are briefly illustrated in this paper.
