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A low‐energy emulsification batch mixer for concentrated oil‐in‐water emulsions
Author(s) -
Caubet Sylvain,
Le Guer Yves,
Grassl Bruno,
El Omari Kamal,
Normandin Eric
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.12253
Subject(s) - laminar flow , static mixer , emulsion , rotational speed , pulmonary surfactant , chemistry , analytical chemistry (journal) , work (physics) , phase (matter) , materials science , chromatography , rheology , chemical engineering , thermodynamics , composite material , organic chemistry , physics , biochemistry , quantum mechanics , engineering
Abstract This work shows the formation of a high internal phase ratio oil‐in‐water (O/W) emulsion using a new type of a two‐rod batch mixer. The mixture components have sharply different viscosities [1/3400 for water‐in‐oil (W/O)], similar densities (1/0.974 for W/O), and an O/W ratio of 91% (wt/wt). The simple design of this mixer leads to a low‐energy process (10 6 < energy density [J m −3 ] < 10 7 ), characterized by low rotational speed and laminar flow. The droplet size distribution during the emulsification was investigated according to different physical and formulation parameters such as stirring time (few minutes < t < 1 h), rotational speed (60 < Ω < 120 rpm), surfactant type (Triton X‐405 and X‐100), concentration (from 1 to 15.9 wt % in water), and salt addition (30 g/L). We show that all studied parameters allow a precise control of the droplet size distribution and the rheology. The resulting emulsions are unimodal and the mean droplet diameter is between 30 μm and 8 μm. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2011