Ultrafiltration of an olive oil emulsion stabilized by an anionic surfactant

In this paper we report results on limiting flux in ultrafiltration of an o il in water emulsion stabilized by an anionic surfactant (sodium dodecyl su lfate). Whereas most of previous investigations report variations of filtra tion flux as a function of pressure at different flow rates, here we also c onsider the influence of surfactant/oil ratio and emulsion's ionic strength . The present study clearly suggests that filtration of stabilized emulsions exhibits paradoxical experimental similarities with filtration of macromole cules. However, classical film models used for the latter case did not yiel d proper values for mass transfer coefficients. When using flux models to a ccount for shear enhanced diffusion and pseudo-plastic behavior of the conc entrated oil in water emulsions a good agreement between calculated and exp erimental mass transfer coefficient is obtained. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.