Emulsifying Mixer Equipment for Stable Emulsions

What is Emulsification?

Emulsifying is the process step of mixing two or more typically unmixable or unblendable liquid phases. The process of emulsification is widely used in industrial applications involving chemical processing, liquid pharmaceutical products and food & beverage processing. Whilst there are a range of emulsifying mixer designs - such as stirred vessels/agitators, static mixers and single rotor-stator mixers - the high shear mixers are particularly well suited for emulsifying (especially in the macro-emulsion droplet size range).

Emulsification Challenges

In most cases, emulsions do not remain in the emulsified stage for a suitable length of time — they revert to the original phases compromising the emulsion process. This has a particular impact when emulsifying products, as unstable emulsifications result in a shorter shelf life. For an emulsion to remain stable, sufficient energy input is required. Generally, the finer the droplets produced, the more stable the emulsion and thus a longer product shelf life.

High shear mixing plays a pivotal role in the emulsification process by breaking down droplets and limiting the re-combining of droplets during processing, which improves the suspension characteristics of the product.

If an existing emulsion requires increased stability, additional shearing of the emulsion decreases the droplet size further - this process of homogenization results in smaller and more uniform droplet sizes. However, this extra process step adds to the cost of production.