15 Examples of Centrifugation

The centrifugation is a method of separating substances solid from liquid differently density in a mix, as long as the former are insoluble, using rotary force or centrifugal force. For example: washing machine, DNA separation, solids drying.

An instrument called centrifuge or centrifuge, which rotates the mixture on a fixed and determined axis.

As its name suggests (centrifuge: fleeing from the center), this force tends to pull the denser components out of the axis of rotation, leaving the less dense in the very center. It is contrary to centripetal force.

Types of centrifugation

Examples of centrifugation

1. The washing machine. This appliance uses centrifugal force to separate clothes (solid) from water (liquid) based on their densities. That is why clothes are usually almost dry when they are removed from the inside.
2. Dairy industry. The milk is centrifuged to break down its water content and lipids, since the latter are used to make butter, or skimmed milk from the remainder.
3. Cars in a curve. When driving fast through a curve in the road, we often feel a force pulling us out of the road, away from the axis of the curvature. That is the centrifugal force.
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4. Obtaining enzymes. In the industry medical and pharmacological, centrifugation is often used to obtain certain enzymes of the specialized cells that produce them.
5. DNA separation. Isopycnic centrifugation is often used in genetic laboratories to separate cellular DNA and allow its further study and manipulation.
6. Food for celiacs. When it comes to separating gluten protein from food that contain it, the centrifugation process becomes essential. It is carried out on starch paste, whose gluten content reaches 8%, and is reduced to below 2% in successive selective centrifugations.
7. Blood tests. A centrifuge is used to separate elements from the blood, such as plasma and other elements that are commonly mixed in it.
8. Acceleration of sedimentation. In various food industries, such as the brewery or the cereals, centrifugation makes it possible to speed up the sedimentation processes that gravity generates spontaneously, reducing the waiting time of the raw material.
9. Cleaning the latex. In the latex industry, it is necessary to clean the substance, whose surface is particularly prone to contamination. adherence of other particles, and this is carried out through centrifugation, given the low density of the substance.
10. Solid drying. Another industrial application of the centrifuge is the drying of crystals or other materials The obtaining of which is accompanied by water. As it rotates, the water separates from the solids and is discarded, leaving the desired solids without the liquid.
11. Sewage treatment. Centrifugation of the contaminated water allows to extract dense substances inside, not only solid, but even oils, fats and other unwanted components that, once centrifuged, could be discarded.
12. Amusement parks. Many amusement park rides use centrifugal force to create a vacuum effect on their riders, who are rotated rapidly about a fixed axis, held tightly to a seat that prevents them from being thrown out of the axis of turn.
13. Stunt motorcyclists. It is a classic of the circus the motorcyclist in a sphere, who is able to drive through the roof of the same defying gravity. This is capable of doing it after having made many turns on the same horizontal axis, accumulating speed and submitting to the centrifugal force that adheres it to the interior of the sphere. Eventually this force will be so great that it will be able to verticalize the movement and defy gravity.
14. Inclination of the train tracks. To counteract the centrifugal force, train tracks are often tilted in curves, exerting resistance so that it does not succumb to the force that pushes it out and does not derail.
15. The terrestrial translation. The reason that the gravitational force of the Sun does not push us headfirst into it is also due to the force centrifuge that, when rotating on the axis of the star king, pushes it outwards, counteracting and balancing the attraction gravitational.

Other techniques for separating mixtures