Imagine shaking a bottle of salad dressing — you get oil droplets of all different sizes that separate quickly. Now imagine every single droplet was exactly the same size. That makes emulsions last longer, work better, and need fewer chemical additives. This French SME built an automated system that churns out identical tiny droplets at industrial volumes — liters per hour — something that was previously only possible in small lab quantities.
Most industrial emulsions contain droplets of random sizes, which leads to shorter shelf life, inconsistent product quality, and heavy reliance on chemical stabilizers. Lab-scale microfluidics can produce perfectly uniform droplets, but nobody had scaled this to industrial volumes with full automation. Companies in pharma, food, and cosmetics are stuck choosing between quality (uniform, small-batch) and quantity (polydisperse, industrial-scale).
The project delivered a product release: an automated high-throughput system for generating monodisperse microdroplets at industrial scale (L/h), built on Elvesys' existing microfluidic pressure controllers, flow switchers, and optical droplet detection tools.
If you are a pharmaceutical manufacturer dealing with inconsistent drug encapsulation and unpredictable release rates — this project developed an automated microdroplet system that produces perfectly uniform capsules at industrial throughput (L/h). Uniform droplets mean each dose delivers the same amount of active ingredient, reducing batch failures and improving regulatory compliance.
If you are a cosmetics manufacturer struggling with product stability and shelf life of creams and lotions — this project built a fully automated system producing monodisperse emulsions that stay stable longer. This means fewer stabilizer additives, cleaner ingredient labels, and less product waste from separated batches.
If you are a food ingredients company working with flavour encapsulation or emulsion-based products — this project created an automated droplet generator that produces uniform micro-capsules at liters per hour. Consistent droplet size means more predictable taste release, longer shelf life, and reduced need for emulsifiers.
The EU contributed EUR 86,250 to this 1-year project at Elvesys, a commercial microfluidics equipment maker. Since the deliverable is a product release, pricing would come from Elvesys directly. Their existing microfluidic tools are already commercially available, so this system likely follows their established pricing model.
The explicit goal was to scale monodisperse droplet production to liters per hour (L/h) using coupled flow microfluidics chips and full automation. Elvesys already had high-speed pressure controllers and optical droplet detection tools — this project integrated them into an automated production system.
Elvesys (trading as Elveflow) is the sole partner and a private commercial SME. As the only consortium member, they hold all IP generated. Licensing or purchasing would be negotiated directly with them.
The project delivered a product release as its sole deliverable, and Elvesys is an established microfluidics equipment company with existing commercial products. The system was built on top of their proven pressure controllers, switchers, and optical detection tools. This positions it close to commercial availability.
The project objective explicitly lists foods, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals as target industries. Any sector that uses emulsions — from drug encapsulation to flavour delivery to paint manufacturing — could benefit from uniform droplet production.
Based on the project data, this targets a gap in the market: monodisperse emulsions were only possible at lab scale via microfluidics. This system automates and scales up that capability to industrial throughput, complementing or replacing traditional polydisperse emulsion methods.
This is a single-company project: Elvesys, a French SME that is already a recognized leader in microfluidic solutions (trading as Elveflow). The 100% industry ratio and zero academic partners signal this was commercially driven from day one — not a research exercise. With EUR 86,250 in EU funding under a Coordination and Support Action (CSA/INNOSUP), the project focused on hiring a specialized Innovation Associate to fill a specific skills gap, not basic research. This is a company that builds and sells microfluidic equipment using EU support to accelerate a specific product to market.
Elvesys (Elveflow), France — commercial microfluidics equipment provider
Want to explore automated monodisperse droplet production for your manufacturing line? SciTransfer can connect you with the Elvesys team and help evaluate fit for your specific application.
