Optimal control of multivariate crystallization processes with size-dependent growth kinetics

Optimal control of multivariate particulate processes in the context of crystal morphology manipulation is discussed in this work. The presented solution based on a conjunction of the method of characteristics, the minimum principle and a coordinate transformation in the property space of the underlying population balance equation extends a previous authors' approach to the broader class of crystallization processes involving size-dependent growth kinetics. As a consequence of a model idealization, the proposed methodology leads to low order boundary value problems resulting in computationally efficient near-optimal solutions.