Electrostatic emulsification

Pavey, Ian David (1980) Electrostatic emulsification. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

Electrostatic atomisation of liquids is a widely used, though incompletely understood, phenomenon, finding applications such as paint and crop spraying. By using this phenomenon to spray one liquid into another, with which the first is immiscible, an emulsion may be formed. This was first attempted by Nawab and Mason in 1958, but to date has only been carried out on a small scale. This investigation assesses the feasibility of using the electrostatic emulsification process to produce a single commercially used emulsion. The design and construction of a pilot scale electrostatic emulsifier is described, together with initial evaluation of performance. The system was designed to produce an emulsion to the same quality control standards as required by an industrial manufacturer, and at a production rate comparable with an existing pilot scale mechanical emulsifier. The physical size of the electrostatic emulsifier was also kept similar to that of existing machines of the same design capabilities.

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