Technology
Innovative Techniques in Product Formulation
The formulation of products, particularly heterogeneous systems, involves a high number of variables and therefore it is essentially impossible to carry out a study that takes into account the very high number of degrees of freedom. See FIRP notebook S011A. As a consequence, things are more complex, but there are also often alternatives and great possibilities of finding new things, that is, of innovating. The following are some fields in which the FIRP Lab has contributed innovations, both in terms of the development of techniques and in solving particular problems.
Different formulation sweep techniques
A role of the FIRP lab in the last 30 years has been to develop study techniques related to the effect of the formulation, initially on simple systems, later with complex systems adapted to particular cases. Among other techniques we can mention: the estimation of the performance of a formulation for low interfacial tension, the solubilization in microemulsion, the estimation of the characteristic parameter of a surfactant, or the EACN of an oil, the calculation of the HLD of a surfactant-water formulation -oil, the rule of mixing surfactants of different classes, the retrograde transition in one sweep, catanionic systems, pH-sensitive systems, temperature-insensitive systems (microemulsion polymerization) etc.
Systematic studies were also carried out on the relationship between the formulation and the composition of the dispersed systems (emulsions, foams, suspensions) with the manufacturing methods, as well as their properties.
Many of these studies were adapted to certain particular cases, and a part of the services were transferred to the partners as innovative techniques.
In half the time that the FIRP lab dedicates to solving problems of its partners, there have been numerous examples of the development of new solutions, that is, of innovation, which in certain cases have resulted in the production of new commercial products and patents for partners.
Among the most significant innovation cases in the FIRP Lab, we can mention:
Studies of optimization and transfer of know-how for the manufacture and stabilization of W / O nanoemulsions for diesel fuel with a lower ecological impact.The optimization of mesophase formulas for the remediation of oil well plugging through microemulsions capable of eliminating penetrated residues and sludge cakes with suspended solid particles, in order to facilitate production.
Measurement of wettability of granular material
The breaking of emulsions, such as dehydration at the head of an oil well or desalination in a refinery for various national and international companies. and many other cases not linked to the oil industry such as the optimization of household cleaning products, the conception and use of new extended surfactant molecules for agricultural and cosmetic applications, the manufacture of lignin derivatives as dispersants and emulsifiers, the formulation and the packaging of cosmetic or pharmaceutical vehicles, or the design of microemulsions for the preservative treatment of construction wood, the formulation of “green” products for the autoemulsification of pesticides …
