Pressure BioSciences receives US patent for nanoemulsion equipment

Published: 17-Nov-2021

The new patent technology, called "Ultrahigh Pressure Compact Valve with Throttling Capability", can be used to process immiscible liquids

Pressure BioSciences, a specialist in pressure-based instruments, consumables, and specialised services to the worldwide life sciences, agriculture, cosmetics, food & beverage, and other industries, has been awarded its second US patent for its Ultra Shear Technology (UST) platform.

Entitled "Ultrahigh Pressure Compact Valve with Throttling Capability", this new patent (US 11,156,295) brings the company's intellectual property (IP) estate to a total of seven UST patents (two in the US) and 30 pressure-based patents worldwide.

The company's UST platform was created to revolutionise the processing of immiscible liquids (typically oils and water) - usually processed into macro/microemulsions - into high quality, highly valuable, long-term stable nanoemulsions. Emulsions are mixtures of two or more liquids that are normally not soluble in each other without the addition of chemicals called emulsifiers (e.g., surfactants).

The conversion of a coarser emulsion into a high-quality nanoemulsion with ultra-low droplet size is made possible by intense fluid shear forces

Emulsions are used in thousands of products in everyday use, such as in dairy products, lotions and creams, drugs and vaccines, and nutraceuticals. Scientific data indicate that higher bioavailability and improved absorption in humans, animals and plants, plus greater stability, lower surfactant levels, and other advantages (such as more reliable dosing control) are vastly improved by high quality nanoemulsions versus micro or macroemulsions.

Edmund Ting, Senior VP of Engineering and an inventor on this patent, said: "The conversion of a coarser emulsion into a high-quality nanoemulsion with ultra-low droplet size is made possible by intense fluid shear forces created from pressure-driven fluid velocity. By using pressures up to 60,000 psi to drive fluid flow, we believe that UST achieves a disruptive shear capability greater than any homogeniser on the market today. UST also achieves higher flow rates and lower processing costs than current high-pressure homogenisers by leveraging the use of field-proven pumps, patented pressure transfer isolators, and our now patented, self-throttling Nanogap valve. The unique design of this compact, self-throttling valve is dynamically-adaptive, delivering clog and erosion resistance, with extraordinary precision and control in producing fine nanoemulsion dispersion size."

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Chief Science Officer, Alexander Lazarev, added: "Amongst the exciting applications of our UST platform are enormous opportunities in the efficient and affordable production of stable nanoemulsions. Nanoemulsions are promising revolutionary advances in food/beverage, nutraceutical, personal care, pharmaceutical, agriculture, as well as many other industries. The UST process features exquisite control of high shear energy, resulting in a very reproducible product with a narrow distribution of droplet sizes as small as 40 to 100 nanometers. Such tiny, nano-sized oil droplets lead to greater stability and higher bioavailability of the active ingredients contained in the oil phase, resulting in more nutritional and better tasting liquid foods and beverages, as well as significantly higher quality drugs and vaccines in dosing and delivery."

"The daily market interest we are receiving in UST-produced nanoemulsions prior to significant active promotion activities is very exciting," John B. Hollister, Director of Marketing and Sales, explained. "Over the past year, we have been working with major players in several of these markets to create unique formulations, the results of which have been embraced by these prospective partners. These companies are exerting tremendous pressure on us to release the commercial-scale, UST systems as quickly as possible. We believe the amount of nanoemulsified product required to meet these customers' needs will clearly help us achieve our goals of strong sales growth and profitability in 2022."

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