Focused Beam Reflectance Measurements (FBRMs) were conducted on suspensions mimicking the optical properties of emulsion systems, with the goal of optimizing the instrumental settings. Then, the same technique was applied to water-in-crude oil and crude oil-in-water emulsions to evaluate its accuracy.
An algorithm was developed to compute the diameter distribution in populations of spherical droplets from the chord length distributions measurement data.
The greatest advantage of this technique is the ability to perform a real-time, in situ measurement of DDD at actual process conditions. The method is capable of repeatable measurements of droplet diameter distributions; however, the measurements are limited within a range of droplet sizes, and the results are sensitive to the relative optical properties of the continuous and dispersed phases, making the calibration step a fundamental phase of the measurement protocol.