Inferring kinetic dissolution of NaCl in aqueous glycol solution using a low‐cost apparatus and population balance model

An experimental methodology for inferring brine dissolution rate in monoethylene glycol (MEG) solutions at different temperatures using a webcam combined with a mathematical model is presented. The measurement system is designed to track the RGB (red, green, and blue) colour variations during the dissolution process. A dynamic model augmented with the population balance equation is applied to describe the dissolution process. Moreover, the dissolution rate is consistently related to the temperature and MEG concentration through the driving force based on the Gibbs energy and chemical affinity. The applied low‐cost measurement apparatus proved to be a useful resource for tracking the dissolution dynamics in a wide range of undersaturation. We proposed an experimental apparatus to infer the dissolution rate from RGB (red, green, and blue) images. The image depicts a scheme of the experiments, an example of the captured image during dissolution, and the dynamic profile of the measured grayscale and of the inferred dissolution rate.