Industrial Applications of Emulsions

The wide range of practical and industrial applications of emulsions, foams, and surfactants in particular, has led to the adoption of a wide range of technical terms, some quite specific to particular industries. This chapter provides brief explanations for about 500 significant terms in the science and engineering of industrial emulsions, foams, and suspensions. In addition, cross-references for selected synonyms, abbreviations, and closely-related terms are included. 

Chapters 5 and 6 begin the progression into more practical emulsion considerations by describing the fiow properties of emulsions in pipelines and in porous media. Armed with the necessary tools, the reader is next introduced to some petroleum industry applications of emulsions. Chapters 7 and 8 cover some important areas in which emulsification is a desirable process in some enhanced oil recovery processes and in petroleum transportation via emulsion pipelining. 

The most important industrial application of alkanesulfonates is the generation of the appropriate emulsions for polymerizing vinyl monomers, e.g., vinyl-chloride or styrene. Other uses are as textile and leather auxiliaries, formulating aids for plant protection agents, and fire-extinguishing foams. 

C Solans and H Kuneida, Industrial applications of micro emulsions (New York Marcel Dekker, 1996). 

In the pharmaceutics literature, an application-triggered drug release from an O/W emulsion recipe has been reported. The application of emulsions in the pharmaceutical industry is very important, and a large number of references are found in the current literature. 

Obtaining highly stabie emuisions efficientiy entaiis optimizing a number of variabies. Because the applications of emulsions are mainly industrial, processes are first optimized at the laboratory scale and then scaled up for commercial production. The optimization procedure can also be used in analytical applications involving an emulsification operation. 

Silva Chunha, A. Grossiord, J.L. Seiller, M. The formulations and industrial applications of multiple emulsions an area of fast development. In New Products and Applications in Surfactant Technology, Karsa, D.R., Ed. CRC Press LLC Boca Raton, FL, 1998 Vol. 1, 205-226. 

Emulsion polymers have been used in a broad range of applications because of their environment-friendly nature and the versatility of the process for adjusting both macromolecular and colloidal properties of the latex. Out of the worldwide demand of emulsion polymers, 23% is used for surface sizing and coating of paper and paper board, 20% for paints and coatings, 25% for adhesives and sealants, and 9% for carpet backing [234], References 234 and 235 and several chapters of the book edited by Lovell and El-Aasser are devoted to the major industrial uses of emulsion polymerization and polymer latexes. 

Different types of dispersions are encountered in industrial applications, the most common ones include solid/liquid (suspension), liquid/liquid (emulsions), gas/liquid (foams), liquid/solid (gels), and liquid/gas (aerosols). These dispersions are encountered in almost every industry in some form or the other during the preparation or as end product. Examples of industrial applications of dispersions include paints, dyestuffs, printing ink, paper coatings, cosmetics, ceramics, microelectronics, agrochemical and pharmaceutical formulations, and various household products. In the following sections, the characterization and properties of solid/liquid suspensions will be described. However, the same concepts would be valid for other kinds of dispersions also. 

At an applied level, study of the rheology of emulsions is vital in many industrial applications of personal care products. It is useful to summarize the factors that affect emulsion rheology in a qualitative way. One of the most important factors is the volume fraction of the disperse phase, ( ). In very dilute emulsions (( )< 0.01), the relative viscosity, Tir, of the system may be related to ( ) using the simple Einstein equation (as for solid/ liquid dispersions) (15) i.e.. 

A third source of initiator for emulsion poljunerization is hydroxyl radicals created by y-radiation of water. A review of radiation-induced emulsion pol5uner-ization detailed efforts to use y-radiation to produce styrene, acrylonitrile, methyl methacrylate, and other similar poljuners (124). The economics of y-radiation processes are claimed to compare favorably with conventional techniques although worldwide industrial application of y-radiation processes has yet to occur. Use of y-radiation has been made for laboratory study because radical generation can be turned on and off quickly and at various rates (125). 

Charlton Photoceramic Process. A positive print is formed on ceramic ware by a process involving the application of emulsion to the ware, exposure in contact with the negative, and development. (A. E. Charlton, Ceramic Industry, 56, No. 4,127,1951.)... 

Among several applications of emulsions the most important are listed here Food emulsion, e.g. mayonnaise, salad creams, deserts, beverages, etc. Personal care and cosmetics, e.g. hand creams, lotions, hair sprays, sunscreens, etc. Agrochemicals, e.g. self-emulsifiable oils which produce emulsions on dilution with water, emulsion concentrates (EWs) and crop oil sprays. Pharmaceuticals, e.g. anaethetics of O/W emulsions, lipid emulsions, double and multiple emulsions, etc. Paints, e.g. emulsions of alkyd resins, latex emulsions, etc. Dry cleaning formulations - these may contain water droplets emulsified in the dry cleaning oil that is necessary to remove soils and clays. Bitumen emulsions - emulsions prepared stable in the containers but when applied to the road chippings they must coalesce to form a uniform film of bitumen. Emulsions in the oil industry - many crude oils contain water droplets (e.g. North Sea oil) and these must be removed by coalescence fol-... 

When oil is recovered from sedimentary formations by conventional means, more than one-half of it can be left behind in the rock (48). This oil is very difficult to remove because it is coating the rock surfaces and not free-flowing. Surfactant-based systems have been developed to enhance the recovery of the trapped oil. When these surfactant solutions are pumped underground, they appear to form microemulsions, bicontinuous structures, and possibly very fine macroemulsions, with the oil. The flow properties of these emulsions through porous media are quite important, therefore much elfort has been invested in rheological studies (49). Once the emulsified oil is removed from the ground, the emulsion needs to be broken in order for the oil to be recovered from the process stream. Another application of emulsions in the petroleum industry is to produce relatively low viscosity emulsions of viscous crude oil to make pipeline transport much easier. 

The last session Waterborne Polymers included 8 presentations. There were discussed the next problems synthesis of smart nano-hydrogels, influence of adsorbed polymers on keratin surface properties in an aqueous environment, pH- and temperature-sensitive microgels for stimuli controlled emulsion stabilisation, industrial application of mini-emulsion polymerization in the coating field, PLURONIC block copolymers in balanced microemulsions. 

Styrene-butadiene, acrylonitrile-butadiene, chloroprene, and vinyl chloride emulsion (co)polymers are mainly used in their dried form. Carboxylated SBR, VAc (co)polymers, acrylics, and styrene-acrylic copolymers are used, on the other hand, as binders of formulation for several industrial applications in their dispersed form. Figure 7 shows the share of each of these families and the major industrial applications of these latexes. ... 

This book is aimed at MSc students, Ph.D. students and reasonably experienced chemists in university, government or industrial laboratories, but not necessarily experts in emulsion polymerisation or the properties and applications of emulsion polymers. For this audience, which is often struggling with the theory of emulsion polymerisation kinetics, this book will explain how theory came about from well-designed experiments, making equations plausible and intuitive. Another issue experienced, especially in the industry, is that coupling theory and everyday practice in latex production is really hard. This is another aim of the book showing how theory works out in real life. 

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