Successful Master’s Thesis Defense of Ludwig Czapla

We proudly announce that Mr. Ludwig Czapla has successfully defended his master's thesis on the topic "Thermodynamic design and experimental optimization of a vacuum crystallization plant for potassium chloride production ".

Potassium chloride (KCl) is a very important starting material for the large-scale production of mineral fertilizers, forms the basic substance for the production of potash, potassium hydroxide solutions, and the liquid metal alloy NaK and is also used in the food industry. The most commonly used technical process for obtaining KCl is the hot dissolution process. In this process, a dissolving lye that is undersaturated with KCl due to heating is pumped into the brine field, where it is saturated by leaching out the host rock. The KCl is precipitated in a subsequent thermochemical vacuum crystallization process. The individual process steps are characterized by the fact that heat fluxes have to be supplied and removed at several points, but their interconnection and coupling with other thermodynamic processes to increase efficiency have not yet been analyzed.

Mr. Czapla's master's thesis remedies this deficiency by systematically applying the principles of Engineering Thermodynamics to investigate the energy and exergetic potential for making the process steps more efficient and therefore more sustainable and environmentally friendly through heat recovery measures. As part of his master's thesis, Mr. Czapla identified two specific starting points for this, namely the recuperation of waste heat from the cooling tower, which then will be reused to operate a cold vapour compression heat pump, and the so-called vapour recompression, in which the water vapour produced in the crystallization plant is mechanically compressed and thus transferred to a higher temperature level that can be technically reused for preheating.

The thesis was scientifically embedded in a joint research project of our group with the DEUSA International GmbH, based in Bleicherode, Thuringia, a region with a very long tradition in salt mining. The thesis was supervised by our colleague Christian Karcher and by Franz Matzke of DEUSA. Furthermore, the thesis was embedded in the SUSEE Erasmus+ partnership project which brings together 4 smaller European universities aiming to foster sustainability in the academic engineering education. Therefore, Mr. Czapla conducted this defense in front of three professors of the partner universities in Poland, Italy, and Portugal, all of which present in person as part of the SUSEE Winter on School on "Energy and Well-Being"

We express a warm miner's greeting "Glück auf!" to Ludwig Czapla and wish him much success in his upcoming career as a well-educated engineer in the field of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, who will soon serve as a Sustainability Officer in industry.