Chemical Engineering & Technology, Vol.44, No.1, 15-22, 2021
Continuous Multistep Encapsulation Process for the Generation of Multiple Emulsions
Multiple emulsions (ME) are of interest as carrier of active ingredients that can be released in a controlled way. ME are thermodynamically unstable with a strong tendency to coalesce or flocculate, resulting in a complex emulsion generation and stabilization process. Typical encapsulation procedures utilize individual batch operation steps for the ME production. In this work, a multistep membrane encapsulation process is proposed to allow the generation of ME in a continuous shear-sensitive processing through different membrane stages. The stages combine the premix generation, followed by the internal phase production, and the final ME encapsulation step. For each step, a tailored membrane with different surface properties is used and combined into the continuous process.