Apparatus for mixing media capable of flowing

Abstract: The apparatus for fine-mixing, dispersing, and emulsifying media capable to flow, such as gases or fluids, comprises an injection nozzle (1) for injecting the pre-mixed media and a hollow body (7) with a bore (28), disposed mirrorinverted and at a small distance thereto, the outlet end (9) of said nozzle (1) and inlet end (8) of said hollow body (7), seen in the direction of flow (S), being a part of an annular gap (10 ) working as pre-emulsifying chamber (2). For intensifying the mixing and effecting a pre-emulsifying the hollow body (7) with the bore is sharp-edged. The appara­ tus further comprises a following homogenizing chamber (5) having at its internal walls means (13) for en­ hancing the turbulence of the mixture.

Description: The present invention relates to an apparatus for mixing, dispersing, and emulsifying media capable of flowing, for example gases or fluids, in particular for the production of emulsions. Different methods and apparatus are known for dispersing and emulsifying media capable to flow, such as rotating systems with a rotor and a stator with teeth, whereby the media are sheared and dispersed or emulsified. Another group comprises high pressure systems, up to a pressure of 5x10⁷Pa, where the fluids are ejected at high pressure and therefore high velocity from a nozzle. A third, low pressure - up to 2x10⁶Pa - system is known for example from the AT-A- 329,012, comprising a mixing chamber with a torus arranged around the inlet nozzle, said torus being conical on the inlet side, and further comprising at the opposite mixing chamber wall a corresponding, parallely arranged conical surface for building an annular gap for obtaining a cavitation of the medium to be mixed. The inlet pipe and the mixing chamber walls comprise twist generating elements. The US-A-4,416,610 discloses an emulsifying apparatus for dispersing water in oil, especially suited for preparing fuel for high-performance oil burners. The fuel must contain water in small droplets, regularly having a diameter of 2 - 5 µm. It is further pointed out that droplets significantly greater than this values are to be strictly avoided. The known apparatus comprises a Venturi member followed by flow perturbing baffles or similar provisions. The Venturi member affords a pre-emulsion which is improved by further splitting of the water droplets by the following baffles. The water is injected in the oil stream through holes located in the throat section of the Venturi member. For due function, however, laminar flow must prevail in the throat section, that is, the Reynolds number should be well under 600. As is further pointed out, the high shear effect in laminar flow near the walls is essential to this appliance and restricts its use to strictly controlled working conditions. Therefore, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide an emulsifying apparatus suited also for producing of problematic emulsion compositions, e. g. little water in much oil, for broadly varying working conditions. An apparatus attaining the primary object is defined in the first claim, and the further claims provide preferred embodiments thereof. Another object to be achieved is the possibility to supply the medium to be emulsified separately to the emulsifying apparatus. This second object is achieved by the device according to claim 10. The invention will be described further by way of examples with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows in a partial longitudinal section the main parts of the apparatus according to the invention, Figures 2 and 3 show each a modification of the embodiment of Figure 1, Figure 4 shows in an enlarged scale the slightly modified apparatus of Figure 1, Figure 5 shows a modification of Figure 4, Figure 6 shows in an exploded view parts of the apparatus according to Figure 1, Figures 7-10 show several embodiments of the preemulsifying chamber, and Figure 11 shows schematically a parallelepipedic homogenizing chamber. The main parts of the apparatus of a first preferred embodiment of the invention for emulsifying pre-mixed media are best shown in the figures 4 and 6, disregarding the injection channel 3. According to it the apparatus comprises an injection nozzle 1, opposite and a small distance from it a hollow body in the form of a truncated cone 7 and a homogenizing chamber 5, having at its internal surface 12 swirling means 13 (Fig. 1). Between the end 9 of the conically shaped injection nozzle 1 and the hollow body 7 is situated a pre-emulsifying chamber 2 comprising a gap 10 between the end 9 of nozzle 1 and the front end of the body 7. The front of the hollow body 7, looking toward the injection nozzle, is formed as sharp edge 8, the gap (10) extending out perpendicularly in all directions from the centre line of the nozzle to a distance greater than the magnitude of the radius of the nozzle (1), said gap extending downstream of said sharp edge (8) to create an annular recess around said sharp edge (8), the combination of said gap (10) and said annular recess defining said pre-emulsifying chamber (2). The inlet piece 4, chamber 5, and the outlet piece 6 (Fig. 4) form the homogenizer. The figures 1-10 show different variations of the hollow body 7. The figures 1-7 show a truncated cone as hollow body 7, figures 8 and 9 with concave, resp. convex sides. Figure 10 shows a cylindrical hollow body. It follows in particular from the figures 7-10 that the hollow body 7 is part of an insertion piece 11, that the hollow body 7 is constituted by an inner wall 30 confining the bore 28 of body 7 and that the outer wall 29 of the insertion piece 11 extends to a greater height than the inner wall 30. The function of aperture 31, also shown in those figures, will be explained later on. At its outlet side the insertion piece 11 contains a recess for receiving an O-ring 21. It follows also that the sharp edge 8 is the inlet front end of the inner wall 30 formed around the bore 28. The aim of each mixing, emulsifying or dispersing apparatus is to achieve a fine and homogeneous mixture of the components. In the case of media capable to flow it is important to disrupt any film formed by the media for instance by water and oil respectively. The sharp edge 8 of the hollow body 7, the gap 10 between said body 7 and the injection nozzle 1 are, the annular recess around the sharp edge (8) very effective means to disrupt any film and to achieve pre-emulsification of injected pre-mixed media. Emulsions are systems with at least two phases, which are not or only to a small extent soluble one in another. It is distinguished between a continuous phase, in which the other, the discontinuous one is distributed in the form of small droplets, forming two groups. There are the oil-in-water and the water-in-oil emulsions. Every high polar, hydrophile fluid falls into the category water, whereas the hydrophobic, non-polar fluids are looked at as oil. If oil and water are brought together and treated very strongly mechanically, one is dispersed into the other and a multitude of droplets are formed. If the system stays at rest, differences in the density leads to the separation of the phases. By admixing substances for lowering the surface tension, the coalescense is stopped. The invention allows a substantial improvement of the problem of manufacturing stable mixtures, in particular emulsions. A further important item of the invention is the homogenizing chamber 5, to which the mixture arrives through the bore 28 of the hollow body 7 and the short inlet piece 4. The internal surface 12 of chamber 5 is rough, for enhancing and maintaining the swirling effect of the gap 10 and sharp edge 8, hindering a film to form. The homogenizing chamber 5 can have any shape, a cylindrical, elliptical, conical or rectangular section. According to a first embodiment, the roughness of the internal surface 12 can be effectuated by inserted small plates 13, with one or several bores 14 each, said bores having different edges, sharp or not, or being in the form of a sharp-edged thread 15 (Fig. 6), or the like other edged or rough means. Figure 6 shows from the left to the right the hollow body 7 with the sharp edge 8 at the bore, contained in the insertion piece 11, a first plate 13 with a bore 14 having an internal edge 16, a second plate 13 with bore 14 having another internal edge 17, a third and a fourth plate 13 with a bore 14 having different edges 18 and 19, the angle α-δ thereof with respect to the axis of the flow direction S increasing in the direction of flow S, preferably from an acute to an obstuse angle. The last plate shows an internal thread 15. The outlet piece 6 can have like the homogenizing chamber a cylindrical, elliptical, conical or rectangular section. The substantial parameters for the flow and the degree of quality of the emulsion are mainly the homogenizing pressure, the volume flow, the density of the media to be mixed as well as their viscosity and the geometries of the nozzle, of the pre-emulsifying chamber, of the homogenizing chamber, and of the outlet piece; and at least of the condition of flow. Figure 11 shows a parallelepipedic homogenizing chamber 24 with parallel to each other arranged lateral walls 25, 26 with great surfaces, which are provided with ribs 27 instead of the plates 13, for enhancing the turbulence of the flow of the pre-emulsion. The ribs are disposed transverse to the direction of the flow, indicated by an arrow. As mentioned before, the media to be mixed, homogenized, emulsified or dispersed can be pre-mixed and injected by the injection nozzle 1, from where it impinges on the sharp edge 8 of the hollow body 7 in the small gap 10, resulting in a pre-emulsification which is completed in the homogenizing chamber 5. There exist media where pre-mixing is not desired or feasible. One such system is a water-in-oil system where the water is injected separately. In the preferred second embodiment of the invention the supporting medium, for example oil, is injected by injection nozzle 1. Thereby it is possible to use a not shown inlet pipe comprising twist generating means according to the AT-A- 329,012. The second medium, for example water, is injected by an injection channel 3, as best shown in Fig. 4. Injection channel 3 is disposed perpendicularly to injection nozzle 1 and admixing of the water occurs through injection channel 3, aperture 31 and the gap 10, wherein the gap 10, the sharp edge (8) and the annular recess around it function as pre-mixing and pre-emulsifying chamber 2. The water can contain solid particles, and instead of water, acids or caustic solutions can be treated. The injection channel 3 is constructed as insertion part 23, comprising a O-ring 22 for sealing it. Through the gap 10, the second medium, the discontinuous phase, water, is admixed perpendicularly to the main medium, the continuous phase, oil, ring-like around the thin-walled hollow body 7. The sharp edge 8 is very important in this connection, with which the film building up at the innner wall of the hollow body is torn apart, causing a good pre-mixing and pre-emulsifying. In particular, the dispersing or comminution of the media is achieved such that one phase is injected under pressure by an injection nozzle into the pre-emulsifying chamber 2 into which the further phase, according to the construction, is either sucked in by the injection action or pumped in. In this pre-emulsifying chamber 2 the inner phase is pre-comminuted for the following homogenizing especially by means of the gap 10, sharp edge 8 and the annular recess around it. The pre-emulsified mixture is subsequently treated as in the first example. The apparatus according to the invention is particularly valuable for the production of stable emulsions. Instead of oil, any fat substance can be treated, and also aqueous phases. The media can contain pre-distributed solid substances, for example catalysators. It is also possible to provide the apparatus with more than one injection channel 3, necessitating to provide for an aperture in the outer wall 29 of insertion piece 11 for each injection channel. The apparatus according to the invention can be qualified as static low pressure homogenizator, that is, besides the pump(s) no moveable parts are required, and it is possible to work with relatively thin walls. Low pressure results also in low energy consumption. The medium injected through the main injection nozzle 1 needs a pressure of about 1 to 20 x 10⁵Pa (1 to 20 Bar), preferably 10 x 10⁵ Pa. By maintaining determined values of the parameters it is possible to obtain very good and stable emulsions, resp. a very good thorough mixing by mechanical-physical treatment, so that the addition of chemical emulsifying agents can be substantially omitted. Thus, the emulsions can be preserved substantially in its chemical structure. It is further possible, by varying the geometries of the four main elements, namely injector nozzle, pre-emulsifying chamber (annular gap), homogenizing chamber and outlet piece, to exclude nearly totally cavitation and thus the addition of impurities.

Claims: An apparatus for mixing, dispersing, emulsifying media capable to flow, including gases, comprising a downstream directed injection nozzle (1), characterized in that it comprises a hollow body (7) possessing a bore (28) and having at the upstream end of its bore (28) a sharp edge (8), the downstream end (9) of said nozzle (1) and the sharp edge (8) of the same shape and diameter being juxtaposed, and the nozzle (1) and the bore (28) arranged such that their center lines are collinear, that a gap (10) is constituted between the sharp edge (8) at the upstream end of the hollow body (7) and the downstream outlet end (9) of the nozzle (1), the gap (10) extending out perpendicularly in all directions from said centre line to a distance greater than the magnitude of the radius of the nozzle (1) and the bore (28), and that, further, said gap extends downstream of said sharp edge (8) to create an annular recess around said sharp edge (8), the combination of said gap (10) and said annular recess defining a pre-emulsifying chamber (2), and that it further comprises a homogenizing chamber (5) following downstream of said pre-emulsifying chamber (2) and having at its internal walls means (13) for enhancing the turbulence of the mixture. An apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the planes defined by the upstream end of the hollow body (7) and the downstream end of the injection nozzle (1) are parallel. An apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the injection nozzle (1) is conical towards its outlet end (9), and the hollow body (7) is either a hollow truncated cone having straight, convex or concave walls; or a hollow cylinder. An apparatus according to claim 1 or 3, wherein the annular recess around the bore (28) of the hollow body (7) comprises an inner (30) and an outer wall (29), the outer wall having a greater height then the inner wall, said sharp-edged inlet end (8) of the bore (28) being the front of the inner wall (30). An apparatus according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the annular recess around the bore (28) of the hollow body (7) comprises an inner (30) and an outer wall (29), the outer wall having a greater height then the inner wall and having at least one aperture (31) as inlet for the injection channel (3), said sharp-edged inlet end (8) of the bore (28) being the front of the inner wall (30). An apparatus according to one of the claims 1 to 5, wherein the homogenizing chamber (5) has a cylindrical, elliptical, conical, or rectangular section. An apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the internal walls of the homogenizing chamber (5) comprise a plurality of inserted plates (13), acting as means for enhancing the turbulence, said plates (15) having at least one bore (14) each, the wall of said bores having edges (16-19). An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the surfaces of the edges (16-19) directed, toward the flow, of the inner wall of the bores (14) of said plates (19) comprise an increasing angle (α-δ) with respect to the axis of the flow (S) of the mixture, in particular increasing from an acute to an obtuse angle. An apparatus according to one of the claims 1 to 5, wherein the homogenizing chamber (24) is made of parallelepipedic walls (25, 26), comprising at its internal surfaces ribs (27) disposed perpendicularly to the flow of the mixture. An apparatus according to one of the claims 1 to 9, characterized by at least one injection channel (3) into the gap (10) for injecting dis-continous second phases.

Inventors: HUETTER KARL, LACKNER HEINZ, MARR ROLF DR, HUETTER, KARL, LACKNER, HEINZ, MARR, ROLF, DR., Hütter, Karl
Applicants: KINEMATICA AG
Application year: 1988
Main classification: B01F5
IPC codes: B01F5, B01F3