Defoamer oil drift – good or bad
Whenever we dilute the silicone defoamer with water, we always see some oil spots floating on the surface of the water dispersion, some are a little bigger, and some are a little very small. These oil spots will not disperse even after a long period of immersion, and finally form a film, and finally may stick to the wall of the vessel. This phenomenon is called floating oil phenomenon.
So what is the reason for this phenomenon? How is the floating oil phenomenon formed?
It is mainly because the general working fluid and the defoaming system contain organic and inorganic substances such as salt, alcohol, acid, and alkali. These substances generally have the effect of demulsification. The defoamer is added to the defoamed medium in a small amount, and the Tianjin defoamer is completely in a completely new and different environment. If the defoamer technology level is low and some ordinary or unsuitable emulsifiers and co-emulsifiers are used, then such a defoamer is easy to demulsify and float oil.
The silicone defoamer is made of silicone grease, emulsifier, waterproofing agent, thickener, etc. with an appropriate amount of water through mechanical emulsification. Its characteristics are small surface tension, high surface activity, strong defoaming power, small dosage and low cost. It is immiscible with water and most organic matter, and can defoam most bubble media. It has good thermal stability and can be used in a wide temperature range of -5℃ to -150℃;. There are many varieties of defoamers and they are widely used. The “foam suppression” and “foam breaking” process of defoamers is: when the defoamer is added to the system, its molecules are randomly distributed on the surface of the liquid, inhibiting the formation of an elastic film, that is, terminating the generation of foam.
The defoamer for floating oil is an inferior defoamer. Only those occasions with relatively low requirements, such as sewage treatment, can use the defoamer for floating oil reluctantly, and it should not be used under normal circumstances. It is even more impossible to use it reluctantly because of the low price. In fact, in order to achieve a certain defoaming effect, the cost of using inferior defoamers for floating oil is much higher than that of defoamers without floating oil.
