Process for preparing stable oil-in-water emulsions

Claim 1

A process for preparing a stable oil-in-water emulsion which comprises: adding about 0.2 to about 10 weight parts of a hydrophilic nonionic surface active agent selected from the group consisting of (1) a compound of the formula R--X--CH.sub.2 --CH.sub.2 --O).sub.n H wherein R represents an alkane, alkene, aryl or chloestanol group containing 8 to 30 carbon atoms, X represents an ether or ester group, and n represents an integer of 15 to 120, (2) a compound of the formula ##STR3## wherein R and X are the same as defined above, and m and m' represent an integer of 1 to 30 and at least 15, respectively, and (3) an ethylene oxide adduct in which about 30 to about 100 moles of ethylene oxide is added to hydrogenated castor oil, to about 1 to about 90 weight parts of a water-soluble solvent capable of dissolving said surface active agent selected from the group consisting of (1) a lower monohydric alcohol having 1 to 7 carbon atoms, (2) a lower polyhydric alcohol having 3 to 6 carbon atoms, (3) polyethylene glycol having a molecular weight of about 60 to about 2000, and (4) a lower aliphatic amine having 2 or 3 carbon atoms; adding about 1 to about 90 weight parts of an oil thereto to form an emulsion of the oil in the water-soluble solvent; and adding about 5 to about 95 weight parts of water to the resulting emulsion.