Microfluidic emulsification devices: from micrometer insights to large-scale food emulsion production

• Examples of scaled-up emulsification devices.
• Comparison of microstructured emulsification devices based on area and volume.
• Hybrid technology using metal sieves and glass beads shows high throughputs.

Microfluidic devices can be used to energy efficiently produce emulsions, and various modes of operation have been suggested in literature, and are summarized in this paper. In general, simultaneous operation of many droplet formation units in parallel is a challenge although considerable progress has been made, leading to forecast equipment dimensions that are realistic for lab-scale, and possibly full scale production. Points of attention are the inter-connectivity between the droplet formation units, and surface modification to prevent wettability changes that can be induced by the emulsifiers and stabilizers present in the emulsion during operation. Besides, for food production, microfluidics are interesting tools to investigate emulsion stability, which is expected to lead to more precise formulation and production of current food stuffs, and to ab initio testing of novel formulations.