Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Scaling up from pilot batch (Water content)

  • Scaling up from pilot batch (Water content)

    Posted by chickenskin on May 13, 2019 at 11:06 pm

    Does anyone have an opinion on increasing the water content in your personal care product for heated water phases?

    Ex…

    (LAB BATCH 500g)
    water 83.65%
    edta 0.10%
    glycerine 5%
    TEA 0.25%


    Olive oil 5%
    Stearic Acid 4%
    Cetyl alcohol 2%

    (SCALE UP BATCH 200 pounds)
    water 83.65% —> increase water percent by 1-2% to account for evaporation water loss???

    edta 0.10%
    glycerine 5%
    TEA 0.25%


    Olive oil 5%
    Stearic Acid 4%
    Cetyl alcohol 2%

    Thanks Community.

    chickenskin replied 5 years, 6 months ago 4 Members · 5 Replies
  • 5 Replies
  • Gunther

    Member
    May 15, 2019 at 12:25 am

    You don’t have any proper emulsifier there so water and oil phases will quickly separate.
    I doubt 4% TEA stearate can emulsify 5% olive oil and 2% cetyl alcohol.

  • ngarayeva001

    Member
    May 15, 2019 at 10:24 am

    Good proportion for TEA stearate is 2:1, which means if you have 4% of stearic acid you need 2% of TEA not .25%
    4:2 should emulsify 10% oil phase.

  • Microformulation

    Member
    May 15, 2019 at 1:54 pm

    Accounting for evaporative loss is part of process engineering. It is usually closely determined in a lab setting and extrapolated on a smaller scale. It is then refined over time by looking at yields. In perspective though, it is far less likely that you see a significant loss in a commercial setting if you are doing emulsions. In your case, it could be significant since you are essentially saponifying the oils with TEA.

  • Gunther

    Member
    May 16, 2019 at 12:22 am

    All tanks should have some volume markings, in order to fill them up to the desired volume as to compensate for evaporation losses.
    That’s why most formulas mention q.s. to 100%

    In large stainless steel tanks, height and diameter are usually measured, do some math, and weld or solder some protuding marks.

  • chickenskin

    Member
    May 22, 2019 at 10:02 pm

    Gunther said:

    You don’t have any proper emulsifier there so water and oil phases will quickly separate.
    I doubt 4% TEA stearate can emulsify 5% olive oil and 2% cetyl alcohol.

    @ngarayeva001 this is was just an example, not a real formula.  

    @Microformulation thanks for the tips!  not a real formula… the main question was just the process..

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