Investigations on the Separation Efficiency of Tubular Bowl Centrifuges

In the last decade a major progress has been achieved in the synthesis and functionalization of nanoscale particles, but the handling , of such material systems like separation or classification has been neglected. With tubular centrifuges, even nanoscale particles can be separated from a suspension at reasonable throughputs due to very high g values. This is a great advantage compared to membrane techniques (low throughput) and filtering, disc stack and decanter centrifuges (lower g values). An analysis of the discharged solids in dependence on time and verification of sediment build-Up with a magnetic resonance spectrometer (MRI) provide a comprehensive understanding of the sedimentation process in a tubular bowl centrifuge. MRI allows a noninvasive, direct view into the filled centrifuge rotor; this data is compared with theoretical results.