(372b) The Emulsion Lab: An Industry Relevant Experiment for Senior Unit Operations

The senior unit operations course in the chemical engineering curriculum presents an opportunity for students to gain a hands-on experience with small-scale equipment commonly used in industry. Typically, unit operations consist of traditional pieces of equipment such as distillation columns, flow through pipes and fittings, and heat exchangers. Although these unit operations provide opportunities for students to connect with material taught in the classroom, there are still a large number of concepts that students are not prepared for upon entry to industry such as emulsion technology. Emulsions are found in a wide range of industries and would be beneficial to incorporate into the classroom. The envisioned open-ended emulsion experiment consists of vegetable oil, water, lecithin, Tween 80 and sodium dodecyl sulfate and salts to investigate the effect of surfactant concentration, type of surfactant and ionic strength on emulsion stability.