02638762/04/$30.00+0.

00
# 2004 Institution of Chemical Engineers
Trans IChemE, Part A, January 2004
Chemical Engineering Research and Design, 82(A1): 116

www.ingentaselect.com=titles=02638762.htm

BOOK REVIEW
ductory chapters are devoted to a variety of fundamental
topics ranging from solution properties, nucleation and
growth measurement and the effect of impurities. These
are followed by nine chapters covering specific topics
describing modes of crystallization and crystallizer operation. Several chapters have been partially rewritten and
brought up to date and the number of contributing authors
has been increased from 11 to 20. Two completely rewritten
chapters, both by new authors, on Precipitation Processes
and Crystallizer Mixing, are worthy of note. The former
gives a clear and concise overview of the fundamentals and
practical aspects of precipitation and includes a good
account of the influence of hydrodynamic conditions on
the kinetics of the process. The theme of hydrodynamic
influence is considerably expanded in the latter chapter with
a good discussion on the potential merits of computational
fluid dynamics as an aid to understanding and modelling
crystallizer mixing and suspension flow.
Two new chapters are included in this edition, one dealing
with the Crystallization of Proteins and the other on Crystallization in Foods. Although protein crystallization is essentially a laboratory-scale operation, it is now being widely
used for industrial purposes and there is no reason to doubt
that it has scale-up potential. The control of crystallization
in food products to improve product quality, texture and
shelf life can hardly be called a new subject since it has long
been practised in the food industry, although often by rule of
thumb. However, it is now receiving much more research
attention with evidence of notable advances being made.
In summary this handbook gives a broad-spectrum coverage of the essential elements of crystallization and its
industrial application. It is well referenced with respect to
specialist monographs and recent published papers and an
excellent index is provided.

Handbook of Industrial Crystallization, 2nd edition

Allan S. Myerson
Butterworth-Heinemann, 2002
313 pp, 65, ISBN 0-7506-7012-6
Reviewed by John Mullin
Crystallization, which has a continuous history dating back
to the dawn of civilisation, has developed in relatively recent
years into an indispensible process used in an astonishingly
wide range of industries. Its importance expanded significantly in the 19th century, as the chemical industry began to
develop and flourish, but even as late as the mid 20th century
industrial crystallization was still being referred to by some
as more of an art than a science and by others, no doubt
chemical engineers, as the Cinderella of the unit operations. There was perhaps some justification for these
ungenerous views since many of the secrets of the art
were still being jealouly guarded within commerical organizations. Few if any relevant books on the subject were
available up to the 1950s. Only rarely did any significant
papers appear in the technical literature. Very few academic
research workers worldwide were interested in the subject,
although several of those who were had made some exceptional and long-standing contributions to the subject.
The last 50 years, however, have seen dramatic changes.
Contacts between academic and industrial research workers,
once a rarity, are now all well established and becoming
increasingly rewarding for both sides. Teams of researchers,
clustered worldwide, encourage international collaboration
and each year many national and international conferences
are held. It has been estimated that more than 10,000
relevant papers are being published annually, although it
might be more interesting to know how many of them are
actually read! Now scores of books on related topics are
available and Allan Myersons edited handbook is a worthy
companion in this ever expanding library.
This second edition follows a similar pattern to that of the
first, which was compiled some 10 years ago. Four intro-

This book is available via IChemEs Virtual Bookshop:

www.icheme.org=shop (IChemE members receive a 10%
discount).

116