Methods and apparatus for high-shear material treatment

Apparatus for high-shear treatment of flowable materials comprising at least two components, one of which is a liquid, the apparatus comprising:

• an apparatus frame;
• first and second mill members mounted by the apparatus frame and providing respective first and second passage surfaces closely spaced from one another to form a flow passage between them constituting a flow path for the flow therein of the material to be treated, the flow path having a corresponding flow direction, the passage having an inlet thereto and an outlet therefrom;
• wherein:
• the flow path includes an overall high-shear treatment zone in which the spacing between the passage surfaces allows the coexistence of free supra-Kolmogoroff eddies which are larger than the smallest Kolmogoroff eddy diameter for the flowing material and forced sub-Kolmogoroff eddies which are smaller than the smallest Kolmogoroff eddy diameter;
• the overall high-shear treatment zone includes at least a portion thereof in which the passage spacing is smaller than in the remainder of the zone to provide a subsidiary higher-shear treatment zone in which free supra-Kolmogoroff eddies are suppressed during passage of the material therethrough;
• and
• motor means are operatively connected to at least one of the mill members to move the member so as to move the first and second passage surfaces relative to one another in a direction transverse to the flow direction at a relative speed in the overall high-shear treatment zone such as to force the simultaneous development of supra-Kolmogoroff and sub-Kolmogoroff eddies for the treatment of the material therein on a supra-micron and sub-micron scale with maintenance of the respective liquid films on the relatively moving passage surfaces so as to thereby render the treated material as uniform as possible;
• such relative movement producing in the subsidiary higher-shear treatment zone only forced sub-Kolmogoroff eddies with maintenance of non-turbulent flow.