Significance This study reports the first ever experimental study of true micro-fluidization: a liquid-fluidized bed of 30.5 mu m micro-particles within a rectangular micro-channel of 400 x 175 mu m(2). The failure to fluidize the micro-particles with water demonstrated the importance of surface forces for micro-fluidization. Use of ethanol instead leads to fluidization that is largely well described by conventional fluidization equations, although higher values of empirical constant (k and n) are obtained for Richardson-Zaki correlation.