Inline Bitumen Emulsification Using Static Mixers

Abstract

Highly concentrated bitumen-in-water emulsions were produced with static mixers in continuous mode. The effect of the following process parameters on the average droplet size was studied: emulsion flowrate, static mixers configuration, and surfactant concentration as well as bitumen hardness, concentration, and temperature. Several static mixer configurations were investigated consisting of combinations of SMX (Sulzer Chemtech Ltd.) and helical elements with empty sections. The drop size results revealed that the mean droplet size could be scaled with the energy or the power draw depending on the static mixer configuration. Moreover, it was shown that the energy draw could capture the effect of emulsion flowrate and bitumen concentration on the mean droplet size, whereas the power draw (or the specific power) captured the effect of the emulsion flowrate and bitumen temperature. It was also demonstrated that the specific energy, or pressure drop, was minimized when SMX mixers were inserted after helical mixers.

Current advances in liquid–liquid mixing in static mixers: A review

“…Maa and Hsu [1996] analyzed and attempted to predict the size of protein-loaded microspheres based on process parameters using three different mixer geometries, while Kiss et al [2011] focused on laminar emulsification as a first step for the production of controlled-release polymeric microparticles for pharmaceutical applications. Furthermore, Gingras et al [2007] considered the feasibility of manufacturing highly concentrated bitumen in water emulsions, typically used for road paving, in hybrid KMS-SMX static mixers rather than in conventional stirred vessels. Several more studies ( , Lobry et al, 2011, Chabanon et al, 2017 to name a few) have investigated the effect of numerous variables (i.e., geometry, flow conditions, fluid properties and phase fractions) on the DSD and pressure drop obtained during the production of emulsions commonly employed by the food and personal care sectors.…”

Comparison between three static mixers for emulsification in turbulent flow

“…The most investigated mixer for liquid-liquid dispersion in turbulent flow in the literature is the classical Kenics helical mixer (Middleman, 1974;Chen and Libby, 1978;Haas, 1987;Berkman andCalabrese, 1988 andYamamoto et al, 2007). Emulsification using the Sulzer SMX mixer has been studied not only in laminar flow (Legrand et al, 2001;Das et al, 2005;Liu et al, 2005;Rama Rao et al, 2007;Fradette et al, 2007;Gingras et al, 2007) but also in turbulent regime (Streiff et al, 1997). Results about liquid-liquid dispersion are also reported in the literature using the SMV mixer (Streiff, 1977;Streiff et al, 1997), the Lightnin Series 50 (Al Taweel and Walker, 1983;El Hamouz et al, 1994) and the High Efficiency Vortex mixer (Lemenand et al, 2001(Lemenand et al, , 2003(Lemenand et al, , 2005.…”

A low‐energy emulsification batch mixer for concentrated oil‐in‐water emulsions

“…There is a range of commercially available equipment that can be used to produce HIPR oil‐in‐water (O/W) emulsions, for example, coaxial mixers12; colloid mills13; high‐pressure homogenizers14; and static mixers 15. The production of such emulsions is also possible by the use of a complex thermodynamic mechanism, which uses the inversion phenomenon as detailed elsewhere 16.…”