Food emulsions using membrane emulsification:: conditions for producing small droplets

Ceramic membranes were used to produce oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions consisting of vegetable oil as the dispersed phase and skim milk as the dispersion medium. The purpose of the work was to find operating conditions suitable for producing small emulsion droplets, a small size being important for emulsion stability. The main parameters investigated were the effect of wall shear stress, emulsifier concentration and membrane pore size. Formation of small droplets was favoured at higher emulsifier concentrations and for a high wall shear stress using a membrane with a small nominal pore size. Submicron particles were produced at an 8% emulsifier concentration for a wall shear stress of 135 Pa using a 0.1 mu m pore size membrane. Under these conditions the flux was >100 kg m(-2) h(-1). A high flux is important for industrial-scale production of food emulsions using membrane emulsification. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.