Prospects for the Use of Hydrocyclones for Biological Separations

Abstract

The development of the hydrocyclone at Southampton University for separating oil/water emulsions for the oil industry during the last 15 years would also appear to offer a possible new dimension for biological separations since both types of separation are similar in terms of their shear sensitivity and low differential density. The peak centrifugal forces generated in small hydrocyclones can be several thousand times the force of gravity which is similar to the centrifugal force used to sediment cells in centrifuges. Therefore, there would seem to be a potential for separating different types of cells in hydrocyclones. In addition, hydrocyclones are low cost, low inventory separators that are easy to isolate and clean; this last property is important for biotechnological applications such as production of genetically-engineered proteins in microorganisms. This paper reports on the preliminary assessment of the degree of compatibility of biological samples with separation in hydrocyclone systems and describes the initial results of dense separations in a small hydrocyclone test rig originally designed for low shear liquid-liquid separations.