Abstract
Oil-in-water emulsions consisting of drops smaller than 10 μm were permeated through porous polytetrafluoroethylene membranes under conditions where only the oil phase permeated. Factors influencing the oil permeation flux were experimentally investigated. They are drop size, stirring velocity during the permeation experiment, volume fraction of the oil phase, and surfactant concentration, among others. When the maximum drop size was doubled, the oil flux became almost ten times larger. Effects of stirring velocity during the permeating experiment and of volume fraction of the oil phase were very large. For the case where the surfactant (SDS) concentration was 2.6 mol/m3, the oil flux was proportional to the 4th power of the stirring velocity and the 3.4th power of the volume fraction of the oil phase. As the surfactant concentration was incresed up to the critical micelle concentration, the oil flux decreased to a very small value.
