Agglomeration is an important stage of the Bayer process aiming at inc
reasing the initial size of Al(OH)3 particles. In the present work, we
investigate the effects of supersaturation, seed charge and stirring
rate on the agglomeration of hydrargillite crystallites, the size of w
hich ranges from about 2 to 10 mum. The experiments are carried out in
a batch crystallizer at constant temperature and caustic concentratio
n. It is shown that the agglomeration rate increases with increasing s
eed charge, but rapidly reaches a plateau before decreasing when the s
eed charge is too high. On the other hand, agglomeration continuously
decreases with increasing stirring rate, while it is favoured by incre
asing supersaturation. In the latter case, growth of the crystallites
contributes to coarsening the agglomerates. We propose the general out
lines of an agglomeration model taking collision and disagglomeration
probabilities into account.