I have conducted an experiment to make 45% NaOH solution using caustic flakes in a 1L theoretically I should have added 450g which gave a solution of about 40% and had to add 250g extra to make 45% solution. I want to scale it up to 10 000L so I have to add about 5102 kg of NaOH. I am interested in knowing or a way to estimating the dissolution time of the amount added. It was easy to do this in the lab I just measured temperature and timed everything.
There is no simple answer here. You must consider the particle size, mixing times, you'll need to control temperature to prevent loss of solvent ( or have a distillation head on top to re-collect any vapor , recommended regardless ) the solubility is complete at 45% so limiting factors to dissolution time will depend mainly on particle size and mixing. There are many ways that chem engineers use initial data such as you have, to scale up, but by far I think good mixing and keeping the solid dry and flowable before addition so it won't clump into large and more difficult to dissolve lumps! Good luck.
Dissolving NaOH will liberate large quantity of heat,which might result in boiling of solution.I doubt you can scale up the mixing time required by lab data.Mr. Pallas has given the parameters to consider.
What I have done is to estimate the temperature increase in the reactor after addition of a certain amount of flakes and it seems as if it will reach maximum temperature at 30% NaOH Solution and then I will use a heat Exhanger (Plate HE)-Cooling tower system which I already have in the plant, the best heat exchanger would be Shell and Tube but we will run this process for only 6 months since we'll have a shortage on our Caustic Soda supply. I have consulted someone who ran a similar process for 5000L and it kind of gave a frame work for me to work from. Thank you very much for your input.
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