Production of Oil-in-Water Emulsions with Varying Dispersed-Phase Content using Confined Impinging Jet Mixers

Abstract

This work reports for the first time on the use of Confined Impinging Jet Mixers (CIJM) for the production of emulsions with dispersed-phase content up to 80 wt %, in both the surfactant-poor and-rich regimes, following the exposure to varying CIJM hydrodynamic conditions. It was observed computationally and experimentally that the CIJM capacity resulted strictly dependent on the mass jet flow rate (Wjet > 176 g/min) and the pre-emulsion droplet size (>10 μm). CIJM emulsification performance remained (almost) unaffected by the variation in the oil mass fraction. All systems showed the lowest droplet size (â8 μm) and similar droplet size distributions under the highest Wjet. Conditionally onto the Tween20 availability, the emulsion d3,2 was primarily determined by formulation characteristics in the surfactant poor-regime and by the CIJM energy dissipation rate in the surfactant-rich regime. In conclusion, this study offers further insights into the CIJM suitability as a realistic alternative to already-established emulsification methods.