TY - JOUR
T1 - Predicting droplet size distributions of emulsions produced in a Sonolator
AU - John, Thomas
AU - Carrillo De Hert, Sergio
AU - Ren, Zhen
AU - Kowalski, Adam
AU - Rodgers, Thomas Lawrence
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to express their gratitude to the EPSRC industrial case awards and Unilever for funding the first author’s Ph.D. studies and EPSRC project The Centre in Advanced Fluid Engineering for Digital Manufacturing (EP/R00482X/1) for funding the other authors. The authors would also like to thank the workshop staff of The University of Manchester’s School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science for their help with the modifications and maintenance of the equipment.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2020/4/8
Y1 - 2020/4/8
N2 - Producing emulsions continuously compared to in batch production has many benefits, such as increased speed and agility of production. A Sonolator, a device similar to a high-pressure homogenizer, is capable of this continuous production. In this paper, the size of droplets produced during emulsification has been investigated for various orifice pressure drops, dispersed phase viscosities, and orifice sizes. The phase fraction of the dispersed phase, up to 10% v/v, and the presence of a blade after the orifice were found not to affect the droplet size distribution (DSD). The mode droplet size decreased with increasing pressure drop and the DSDs were mostly bimodal, due to the formation of satellite droplets, meaning that d
3,2 is a poor benchmarking parameter. We propose a model capable of predicting the full DSD of the emulsion. This reveals key parameters for scale-up of production using Sonolators and can help to improve product quality and process efficiency.
AB - Producing emulsions continuously compared to in batch production has many benefits, such as increased speed and agility of production. A Sonolator, a device similar to a high-pressure homogenizer, is capable of this continuous production. In this paper, the size of droplets produced during emulsification has been investigated for various orifice pressure drops, dispersed phase viscosities, and orifice sizes. The phase fraction of the dispersed phase, up to 10% v/v, and the presence of a blade after the orifice were found not to affect the droplet size distribution (DSD). The mode droplet size decreased with increasing pressure drop and the DSDs were mostly bimodal, due to the formation of satellite droplets, meaning that d
3,2 is a poor benchmarking parameter. We propose a model capable of predicting the full DSD of the emulsion. This reveals key parameters for scale-up of production using Sonolators and can help to improve product quality and process efficiency.
U2 - 10.1021/acs.iecr.9b05596
DO - 10.1021/acs.iecr.9b05596
M3 - Article
SN - 0888-5885
VL - 59
SP - 6681
EP - 6695
JO - Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
JF - Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
IS - 14
ER -