Preparation of solid lipid particles by membrane emulsification—Influence of process parameters

The present study investigates the preparation of solid lipid particles using the membrane emulsification process. The lipid phase is pressed, at a temperature above the melting point of the lipid, through the membrane pores allowing the formation of small droplets. The aqueous phase circulates inside the membrane device, and sweeps away the droplets forming at the pore outlets. The influence of the lipid phase (Compritol 888 and Gelucire 44/14), and the pores size of SPG membranes on the solid lipid particles size and on the lipid flux is investigated. The membrane emulsification process allows obtaining solid lipid particles with a mean size between 50 and 750 nm, and a lipid phase flux between 0.008 and 0.84 m3/h m2. The high fluxes obtained with the 0.1 μm pore size SPG membrane suggest that scaling-up could be possible for industrial applications. However, further work is needed to reduce fouling obtained during the preparation of solid lipid particles with the small membrane pore size (0.2 and 0.4 μm).