Development of ultrasonic atomization based emulsification device

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

NTS Research and Inc. is a research company dedicated to developing safe and environmentally-friendly pest management solutions. The goal of the company is to develop vegetable oil based bio-pesticide that is non-toxic and environmentally friendly. There have been tremendous efforts globally in developing non-toxic pesticides with minimum risks by using natural materials as pest control substances. Use of bio-pesticides that use vegetable oils such as soybean oil has been approved by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA). Use of these vegetable oil based bio-pesticides shows great promise. Formulation of bio-pesticides typically involves dilution and emulsification of oil in water with little or no use of surfactants. Thus, oil is mechanically broken into small droplets through spray or pressure homogenizers in order to emulsify oil in water without the use of chemical emulsifiers. However, one of the main problems with mechanical emulsification is that oil tends to conglomerate into larger droplets over time. NTS Research and Inc. has developed a proprietary bio-pesticide, Oleotrol-M, as well as a mechanical emulsification process to break oil into submicron size droplets, leading to stable emulsification over long time. However, because stable emulsification is performed at the company not at the location of use, Oleotrol-M is currently sold as already diluted pesticide solution, leading to significant increases in shipping cost due to the weight of water used for dilution As NTS develops effective pesticide solutions, cost effective device that can perform easy emulsification of the pesticide oil at the location of use can lead to significant savings in shipping and better marketing of their product, because such device can allow purchase of pesticide only without dilution, which can be done locally afterwards. NTS can also benefit from the sales of such device that can continuously emulsify pesticide oil in the local water. Thus, the objective of this Engage project is to develop a small and cost-effective ultrasonic atomization device that can mechanically create stable emulsification of Oleotrol in water.