High-pressure Homogenization Nozzles

Optimizing the efficiency of droplet formation, disintegration and stabilization is the domain of microengineered devices. Here, micromixers, optimized high-pressure homogenizer nozzles and specific microfluidic devices such as microchannels are under investigation. 

Figure 20.6 Recent developments in high-pressure homogenizing nozzles and microengineered valves.

The characteristic length of the dispersion chamber, e.g., the slot width between rotor and stator in dispersion mills or the nozzle diameter in high-pressure homogenizers (utilizing high-speed fluid shear), will be denoted as d. ... 

In appliances with only one degree of freedom (e.g., high-pressure homogenizers), the power is introduced by the liquid throughput. Here, the relevant intensive formulated is therefore power per liquid throughput, P/q. Due to the fact that in nozzles PocApq, this results in... 

The main part of a high-pressure homogenizer is the disruption system. Here, the pressure built up by the pump is expanded resulting in specific flow conditions used for droplet disruption. The disruption systems that are availahle on the market can be divided into valves and nozzles. 

Moreover, insulin-loaded PLA nanoparticles with high yields of encapsulation were produced by Elvassore and coworkers [61]. In this work, a homogeneous solution of protein and polymer is sprayed through a nozzle in a high-pressure vessel. In order to achieve nanoencapsulation, mixtures of dichloromethane (DCM) and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) were used to ensure the solubility of both the polymer and the protein. In Figure 9.9-3 a SEM image of the fine-particle powders produced is presented. 

---