Scale-up Study of Agglomeration During Oxalic Precipitation in Nuclear Industry

The aim of this paper is to study the scale-up effects on agglomeration mechanisms during the precipitation of actinide and lanthanide oxalate in continuous MSMPR (Mixed Solution Mixed Product Removal) crystallizers in order to determine extrapolation rules from the laboratory scale to pilot and industrial scales. Precipitation experiments are performed in three identical steady-state continuous precipitators with a 20 scale-up factor. Under the same chemical and hydrodynamic conditions, the agglomeration kernel of neodymium oxalate obtained at small scale is valid on larger one. The results of this study allow to scale-up with success the data obtained at laboratory-scale to pilot even industrial scale.