Solid-stabilized emulsion (Pickering emulsion) can act as catalyst supports for biofuel refinery. Typically emulsions can be of four different types depending on the location of water and oil phases: O/W, W/O, O/W/O, or W/O/W. The migration of species from an isolated phase (oil in the case of O/W emulsion or water in the case of W/O emulsion) to an adjacent oil or water phase has been rarely investigated. Recently, we designed the following experiments to study this phenomenon. A mixture of different oils (in this case, tetralin, tetralone, and decalin) was used for the preparation of a O/W emulsion. Then, we placed a pure oil phase (in this case, tetralin) on the top of the emulsion phase and obtained the species transfer rate by acquiring the composition of the upper oil phase by employing a gas chromatograher (GC).
Our preliminary results suggest that the oil transfer rate depends greatly on the emulsifier particle concentration and the oil type (solubility in water). Also, the extent of oil migration can be well correlated to the emulsion images.
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