THE SCALE-DOWN OF AN INDUSTRIAL DISK STACK CENTRIFUGE

The means are described whereby a disc stack centrifuge may be scaled-down by up to 10-fold of its separation capacity. The centrifuge separation characteristics so measured are suitable for direct scale-up predictions of centrifuge performance where only small volumes of particle suspension are available for study. Such an ability to scale-down is especially important in the processing of biological particles where for example, in the early stage of process development, there is often insufficient fermentation broth for full-scale studies. Scale-down is achieved by the reduction of the number of discs available for separation purposes and by the careful positioning of these discs in the overall disc stack. A combination of dye tracer and particle separation studies are used to optimise the disc stack configuration. The resulting grade efficiency curve is an accurate reflection of the curve for the full-scale centrifuge especially in the critical design region specifying centrifuge throughput for near complete particle recovery.