Effect of hydrodynamic cavitation on powder detergent dissolution using Venturi reactors

Official URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.11159/htff25.192

Hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) was explored in this study as an energy-efficient method to accelerate the dissolution of laundry detergents, and the performance of the approach was evaluated via UV–Vis absorbance measurements. For this, a custom Venturi-type HC reactor was used to dissolve standard detergent formulations at various operating pressures of 30 psi to 150 psi and the results were compared to conventional mixing benchmarking cases. UV–visible spectroscopy (measuring peak absorbance at characteristic wavelengths) provided a quantitative comparison of dissolved detergent concentrations. Accordingly, the HC treatment significantly enhanced the dissolution rate of detergent by up to 105%, achieving higher solution concentrations in shorter times as little as 35 s, compared to mixing which required 2 minutes and yielded a lower dissolution rate. Notably, the cavitation flow led to physical deagglomeration of detergent particles, as evidenced by reduced particle size distributions, which in turn improved mass transfer. These findings demonstrate that Venturi-induced hydrodynamic cavitation can greatly improve both the duration and efficiency of detergent dissolution. The results suggest a strong potential of HC-based processes in washing applications to reduce time and increase dissolution rate.