This branch of engineering deals with all of the equipment, from stirrers to rotor-stator dispersers such as the so-called toothed-disc dispersing machines or colloid mills to high-pressure homogenizers, that make it possible for drops of one liquid to be distributed in another and fragmented. The liquids remain immiscible, never forming a homogenous mixture. During emulsification, phase transitions can be either useful, such as in melt emulsification, or should sometimes be avoided such as cavitation. Emulsion formulation engineering uses measurement methods to determine droplet size distribution as well as the fluid systems’ rheological behavior and flow simulations in order to, for example, develop optimum nozzle geometry.
