4. High-pressure homogenizers

Principle and mechanism

Based on the piston pump principle, this technique involves forcing a coarse pre-emulsion through a small orifice (homogenization nozzle) at high pressure (150 to 200 MPa, or 350 to 400 MPa for ultra-high pressure homogenization). The extreme shear and cavitation (induced by the implosion of gas microbubbles) (see § 2.4 article [J 2 152] ) created by these conditions induce droplet bursting, leading to nano-sized emulsions