Foam Generation in Rotor‐Stator Mixers

Abstract

One of the unit operations in foam technology is foam generation in a liquid/gas mixer. The foaming process of an aqueous liquid system with a surface‐active agent in a rotor‐stator mixer has been studied, and it was found that it could be represented by a mixing characteristic relating the liquid flow rate to the maximum gas flow rate needed to produce a foam without ‘blow‐by’. Too high a gas flow rate resulted in a short‐circuiting flow of gas via the rotor shaft to the outlet. The influence of the number of rotor‐stator blades, equipment size and operating pressure on the behaviour of the foam mixer has been investigated.