2. Clarifiers and separators

Among the large number of mechanical separations that can be carried out by centrifugation, the two most common techniques are clarification and sedimentation.

• Clarification is the process of removing a solid phase from a liquid phase, either to recover the liquid phase alone, or to recover the solid phase alone, or to recover the two well-separated phases.

• Separation is the process of separating two liquid phases.

  Centrifugal machines perform these two separations by rotating a container called a "bowl" around a vertical axis.

  The bowl is called a clarifier if it separates a solid suspended in a liquid phase; it is called a separator if it separates two liquid phases.

  We review the different types of bowl below....