Centrifugal Extractor
also known as rotary drum extractor · centrifugal contactor
A centrifugal extractor mixes the phases in a rotating drum and then separates them under centrifugal force thousands of times stronger than gravity. Residence time falls from minutes in a gravity settler to seconds, and the machine is compact and sealed. Throughput is set by the drum geometry and rotational speed, and stage count by arranging units in series.
Why it matters in practice
Short residence time matters twice: for fast-degrading or radioactively hot systems, and for crud-prone feeds where solids have little time to stabilise the interface. The trade-off is that solids still have to go somewhere, and disc-stack internals themselves foul, so centrifuges complement rather than replace gravity settlers.
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Equipment referenced in this entry
Related terms
Reference entry GL-CENTRIFUGAL-EXTRACTOR. Definitions on this page describe engineering practice in hydrometallurgical process design; they are not a substitute for test work on your own material.