Innovations in Separation Technology
For over 140 years, innovation has been the core of Alfa Laval’s separator technology, and that tradition continues. Our latest advancements are inspired by the human body’s natural intelligence, leading to a new generation of separators that will self-adjust with unmatched precision.
This leap forward in separation innovations is designed to seamlessly adapt to changing process conditions. It's a testament to our long-standing expertise and a commitment to helping you improve daily operations and secure sustainable processing for the future.
Innovation with an impact
Beer clarification
Brewing requires energy for separation. With Alfa Laval Hermetic Design™ and eMotion™, breweries can cut energy use by up to 70-75%, equal to the yearly consumption of 60 households. Let’s stop wasting energy!
Biopharma harvesting
The world of pharmaceuticals keeps on pushing the boundaries and Alfa Laval is driving innovations to make it happen. 40 to 80% less water, energy, and cleaning agents with CultureOne, compared to filter-based harvesting methods, with only a fraction of plastics!
Alternative protein separation
Innovations for your industry
Food, Dairy & Beverage
Powerful separation performance and gentle product handling is just the beginning of what Alfa Laval innovations can do for the food and beverage industry.
Next-generation food
Alfa Laval provides unmatched separation expertise for the changing food landscape. Our separator innovations bring scalability, and profitability to next-generation food processes, like cellular agriculture.
Biotech & Pharma
In biopharma processing, every drop of harvested product adds significant value. Alfa Laval separator innovations help optimize yield and product quality when harvesting and purifying even the most delicate cell cultures.
Energy & Marine
Alfa Laval has provided the marine and energy sectors with class-leading separation technology for decades.
Learn more about separation technology
How does separation technology work?
Separation technologies are essential to a broad range of industries — from food, beverage and pharma to marine and energy through to water and waste treatment. Various technologies are used for separating liquid from liquid and solids from liquids with the aim of producing cleaner substances, valuable by-products and less volume of waste to dispose.
Take advantage of Alfa Laval features
All Alfa Laval separators are developed with the benefit of more than 130 years of experience with disc stack separation technology and our deep knowledge of customer processes. Find out how all that expertise has gone into unique features for improved separation performance.
Get in touch with our experts today
We’re here to help. If you have an enquiry or want to learn more about Alfa Laval's products, services and solutions, please fill out the form. Our experts are ready to assist you and will get back to you shortly.
Other quick ways to contact us
While this form is the best way to get in touch, you can also speak with a member of our team by phone at 01276 63383 during business hours: Monday - Friday, 08:30 - 17:00.
Centrifugal Separation Technology - Frequently Asked Questions
What is centrifugal separation and how does it work?
Centrifugal separation is a process that uses rotational force to separate mixtures of liquids, solids, or gases based on differences in density. When a mixture is fed into a high-speed rotating bowl, centrifugal force - many thousands of times greater than gravity - causes denser particles or liquids to move outward while lighter components migrate toward the centre. This allows continuous, highly efficient separation that would be impossible to achieve at the same speed or purity using gravity settling alone.
Alfa Laval has been at the forefront of centrifugal separation technology for over 130 years, and its high-speed separators are used in some of the world’s most demanding industrial processes - from marine fuel treatment to pharmaceutical clarification.
What is a high-speed centrifugal separator?
A high-speed centrifugal separator is an industrial machine that spins a process liquid at very high rotational speeds - typically generating centrifugal forces of 4,000 to 10,000 times the force of gravity (G-force) - to separate liquids from other liquids, or liquids from fine solid particles. Unlike basic filtration or gravity settling, high-speed separators can handle continuous throughput, achieve very fine separation, and process fluids that would otherwise be extremely difficult to clarify or purify.
Alfa Laval’s high-speed separators are disc stack centrifuges - a design Alfa Laval pioneered and has continuously refined - which use a stack of conical discs inside the rotating bowl to dramatically increase the effective separation surface area and improve efficiency.
What is a disc stack centrifuge and why is it so effective?
A disc stack centrifuge is a type of high-speed separator that contains a stack of closely spaced conical discs inside the rotating bowl. These discs divide the liquid into thin layers, dramatically shortening the distance that particles or droplets need to travel before being separated. This increases throughput and separation efficiency significantly compared to a simple bowl centrifuge.
The disc stack design is widely regarded as the most efficient technology for liquid-liquid and liquid-solid separation in continuous industrial processes. Alfa Laval invented the disc stack centrifuge in the late 19th century and remains the global technology leader in its development - with innovations in disc geometry, materials, and automation continuing to improve performance to this day.
What is the difference between a clarifier and a separator?
In centrifugal separation, these two terms describe different tasks:
- A clarifier removes solid particles from a single liquid phase - for example, removing fine sediment or biological solids from a liquid to produce a clear, clean product
- A separator (or purifier) separates two immiscible liquid phases from each other - for example, separating water from oil - and may simultaneously remove solids as a third phase
Alfa Laval manufactures both clarifiers and three-phase separators, and the correct choice depends entirely on your process objective. In many industrial applications - such as marine fuel treatment or vegetable oil processing - a three-phase separator is required to simultaneously remove water and solids from the primary liquid.
What industries use high-speed centrifugal separators?
High-speed centrifugal separators are used across a remarkably broad range of industries, including:
- Marine - fuel oil and lube oil purification to protect engines and meet emissions regulations
- Food and beverage - cream separation, beer clarification, fruit juice processing, edible oil refining
- Dairy - milk standardisation, whey processing, bacteria removal
- Pharmaceuticals and biotechnology - cell harvesting, fermentation broth clarification, API purification
- Chemical processing - solvent recovery, catalyst separation, polymer processing
- Energy - biofuel production, produced water treatment, transformer oil purification
Alfa Laval’s application expertise spans all of these sectors, with dedicated separator designs optimised for the specific demands of each industry rather than generic, one-size-fits-all solutions.
How much G-force does a high-speed separator generate, and why does it matter?
Alfa Laval’s high-speed disc stack separators typically generate between 4,000 and 10,000 G - compared to the 1 G of normal gravity. This extraordinary force is what makes centrifugal separation so powerful: particles or droplets that would take hours to settle naturally under gravity are separated in seconds. The higher the G-force, the finer the particles or droplets that can be effectively separated, which is critical in applications such as pharmaceutical clarification or the removal of water from fuel oil where even trace contamination is unacceptable.
Can centrifugal separators handle solids continuously, or do they need to be stopped for cleaning?
Modern high-speed separators from Alfa Laval are designed for continuous or semi-continuous operation. Self-cleaning (hermetic) models use an automatic discharge mechanism that ejects accumulated solids from the bowl at timed intervals - without stopping the machine or interrupting the process. This is a significant operational advantage in high-throughput industrial environments where downtime is costly. For applications with very low solids content, manual-cleaning bowl designs may be appropriate and more economical.
How energy efficient are modern high-speed centrifugal separators?
Energy efficiency has become a central focus of centrifugal separator design. Alfa Laval’s latest generation of high-speed separators incorporate features such as direct drive motors (eliminating gearbox losses), optimised bowl and disc geometry to reduce fluid drag, and intelligent automation that adjusts operating parameters in real time to match process conditions. Compared to older separator generations, modern Alfa Laval units can deliver the same separation performance with significantly lower energy consumption - an important consideration both for operational cost and sustainability targets.
What maintenance does a high-speed centrifugal separator require?
High-speed separators contain precision-engineered rotating components that require periodic inspection and maintenance to ensure safe, reliable operation. Typical maintenance tasks include inspection and replacement of bearings, seals, and gaskets, bowl and disc cleaning, and checking of the automatic solids discharge mechanism. Alfa Laval recommends planned maintenance intervals based on operating hours and process conditions, and offers genuine spare parts, service kits, and field service support to keep separators running at peak performance throughout their operational life - which, with proper maintenance, can exceed 20 to 30 years.