To gain deeper process understanding of premix membrane emulsification, an instrumented small scale extruder was developed to identify the interrelations between flow rate, resulting emulsifying pressure, and emulsification success. Predispersed O/W emulsions composed of 20% medium chain triglycerides and 15% SDS were extruded through different disposable membranes (polycarbonate, polyester, polyethersulfone, polysulfone, nylon, polyvinylidene fluoride) with a mean pore size of 200 nm. With the polycarbonate membrane, flow rates from 0.1 to 1.4 ml/s were investigated over 21 extrusion cycles. The extrusion with the lowest and the highest flow rate required an emulsifying pressure as low as 3 bar and around 30 bar, respectively. With the polycarbonate membrane, final products were in general obtained with a median particle size lower or around 200 nm after 21 cycles. The choice of the membrane material was decisive for the emulsifying success. The use of a polyester membrane led to monomodal particle size distributions after the second cycle, whereas other membrane materials required recirculation of the emulsion for 3-17 cycles to gain a monomodal distribution. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.