Emulsification microporous systems

Figure 20.4 Droplet formation at the surface of micropores and forces acting on droplets in emulsification in microporous systems [3 Ij.

H. P. Schuchmarm, et al.. Emulsification using microporous systems, in 10th Aachen Membrane Colloquium, 2005, pp. 171-184. 

U. Lambrich, H. Schubert, Emulsification using microporous systems, /. Membr. Sci. 2005, 257, 76. 

In these systems, the interface between two phases is located at the high-throughput membrane porous matrix level. Physicochemical, structural and geometrical properties of porous meso- and microporous membranes are exploited to facilitate mass transfer between two contacting immiscible phases, e.g., gas-liquid, vapor-liquid, liquid-liquid, liquid-supercritical fluid, etc., without dispersing one phase in the other (except for membrane emulsification, where two phases are contacted and then dispersed drop by drop one into another under precise controlled conditions). Separation depends primarily on phase equilibrium. Membrane-based absorbers and strippers, extractors and back extractors, supported gas membrane-based processes and osmotic distillation are examples of such processes that have already been in some cases commercialized. Membrane distillation, membrane... 

Many types of emulsification equipment are widely appUed in industry, such as high pressure homogenizers and rotor-stator systems. In these machines the premix droplets are deformed and disrupted in the flow field of the emulsification device [1]. In addition to these techniques, alternative methods for the production of emulsions using microporous devices have been developed since the early 1990s. 

Figure 6.3 Examples of rotating membranes used for emulsification (a) Rotating membrane fabricated by deposition of pure carbon layer on the microporous nickel substrate (Schadler and Windhab, 2004, 2005) (b) rotating stainless steel membrane with laser drilled pores (Vladisavljevic and Williams, 2006) (c) a rotating membrane emulsification system in operation (Vladisavljevic and Williams, 2006).

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