Detergent Dissolution Intensification via Energy-Efficient Hydrodynamic Cavitation Reactors.

In this study, we explored the potential of hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) for use in dissolution of liquid and powder detergents. For this, microfluidic and polyether ether ketone (PEEK) tube HC reactors with different configurations were employed, and the results from the reactors were compared with a magnetic stirrer, as well as a tergotometer. According to our results PEEK tube HC reactors present the best performance for dissolution of liquid and powder detergents. In the case of liquid detergent, for the same level of initial concentration and comparable final dissolution, the PEEK tube consumed 16.7 and 70% of the energy and time of a tergotometer and 16.7 and 14.8% of that of a magnetic stirrer, respectively. In the case of powder detergent, the PEEK tube used 12% less power than a tergotometer and 81.2% less power than a magnetic stirrer. Additionally, the time required to dissolve the detergent was reduced significantly from 1200 s in the tergotometer and 1800 s in the magnetic stirrer to just 50 s in the PEEK tube. These results suggest that HC could significantly improve the dissolution rate of liquid and powder detergents and energy consumption in washing machines.

Fundamentals, biomedical applications and future potential of micro-scale cavitation-a review.

Thanks to the developments in the area of microfluidics, the cavitation-on-a-chip concept enabled researchers to control and closely monitor the cavitation phenomenon in micro-scale. In contrast to conventional scale, where cavitation bubbles are hard to be steered and manipulated, lab-on-a-chip devices provide suitable platforms to conduct smart experiments and design reliable devices to carefully harness the collapse energy of cavitation bubbles in different bio-related and industrial applications. However, bubble behavior deviates to some extent when confined to micro-scale geometries in comparison to macro-scale. Therefore, fundamentals of micro-scale cavitation deserve in-depth investigations. In this review, first we discussed the physics and fundamentals of cavitation induced by tension-based as well as energy deposition-based methods within microfluidic devices and discussed the similarities and differences in micro and macro-scale cavitation. We then covered and discussed recent developments in bio-related applications of micro-scale cavitation chips. Lastly, current challenges and future research directions towards the implementation of micro-scale cavitation phenomenon to emerging applications are presented.