Design of micromixer for emulsification and application to conventional commercial plant for cosmetic

In the manufacture of cosmetics, the characteristics of the final product strongly depend on the degree of emulsification, but the current commercial process cannot achieve the desired droplet diameter. To overcome this disadvantage, we used a micromixer (K-JET mixer) originally developed for use as an inline mixer. The K-JET mixer has a simple orifice-based design and offers three main advantages: it can be used for a wide range of products, achieves good mixing, and can be easily adjusted for a wide range of throughputs. It was clarified that the droplet diameter of the emulsion was well correlated with the energy dissipation rate, which was easily controlled by adjusting the orifice diameter and flow rate. On the basis of this relationship, we built a full-scale mixer suitable for a commercial plant and identified the necessary specifications for the gel capsule. Thus, we found that the commercial process can be successfully expanded for the manufacture of new products by just using a high-throughput micromixer. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.