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What Is Centrifugal Separation?
Gravity used to be the force for separating sediment from a liquid solution. The liquid would stand for a period of time while the solids settled to the bottom of the container. It is done differently today. A rapid circular force is created by mechanical means in a centrifuge. This force is used to separate various combinations of generally unmixable liquids, or liquids and solids, contained within the centrifuge.
Applications In The Dairy Industry
The dairy industry is one of the foremost users of centrifugal separation, using it to part the cream from whole milk. This process used to take the better part of a day using simple gravity to do the job, letting the milk stand until the cream was on top and the milk on the bottom. Now it is done quicker and more efficiently centrifugally. The centrifugation process is also used to clarify milk by removing impurities before the liquid goes through the pasteurization process. Other uses are to separate cream from skim milk, remove bacteria and separate curd from whey.
Blood Separation
Centrifugal separation is also used in the medical laboratory. One of its chief uses is the separation of plasma cells from blood as well as removing impurities.
The Centrifuge
A centrifuge separates substances of different density and mass by sending the heavier elements away from the lighter. Some of its other applications include separating water from solids, as in the mining industry. Ultracentrifuges can separate substances on a molecular level using extremely high forces of gravity. Centrifugal force is also the principle behind G-force training in the space industry, although nothing is separated in that instance.