How Does a Vacuum Centrifuge Concentrator Works

What is a centrifuge?

A laboratory centrifuge is a device that concentrates substances. It uses various methods—individually or in combination—to make the process more efficient.

Take the Savant SpeedVac Concentrator as an example. This centrifuge uses rotation to create a G-force that keeps the liquid inside the container, preventing spills. A vacuum lowers the boiling point of the liquid, allowing it to evaporate faster. Heat is then applied to boil the liquid, leaving behind a concentrated substance.

Where are they used?

Centrifugal evaporators are utilized in a wide variety of different industries and applications, serving many important purposes in research and development laboratories.

The main uses and applications include:

• Medical field: Creating and preparing samples of DNA, RNA, or protein for research and diagnostic purposes
• Pharmaceutical: Concentrating samples for medicine development, quality control, and production processes
• Environmental testing: Preparing samples for analysis of contaminants and pollutants
• Food industry: Concentrating samples for quality control and nutritional analysis

Laboratory concentrators are primarily used to create concentrated samples for analysis and testing purposes. They are rarely used in large-scale production environments, as they are designed for sample preparation rather than industrial-scale processing.

How do they work?

A concentrator works on the same principle as boiling water in a pan on the stove. You apply heat, liquid turns into vapor, and what’s left behind becomes more concentrated. But while this is a simple process at home, doing it in a laboratory requires far more control, precision, and efficiency.

Evaporating large amounts of liquid is extremely energy-intensive and time-consuming, which is why full-scale evaporation is almost never performed in research settings. Laboratories typically work with small volumes—milliliters rather than liters—because scientists want to isolate, purify, or analyze compounds without wasting time or materials.

Instead of using large containers, the liquid is placed into small test tubes or vials inside the concentrator. The goal is always the same: remove excess solvent while preserving the substance of interest, whether that’s a biological sample, a chemical extract, or a purified compound.

Although the principle is simple, the engineering behind a concentrator makes the process far more efficient than open boiling. Several factors play a role:

1. Smaller Volume = Faster Evaporation

By working with test tubes instead of beakers or flasks, the surface area-to-volume ratio increases. More surface area relative to liquid amount means the solvent can evaporate much quicker. This immediately reduces energy consumption and speeds up turnaround times.

2. Controlled Heating

Most substances in research—DNA, proteins, solvents, organic compounds—do not tolerate uncontrolled boiling. They need gentle, even heating.

Concentrators use precisely regulated temperature control to avoid overheating or degrading sensitive samples.

3. Reduced Atmospheric Pressure

This is where concentrators outperform traditional evaporation.

Instead of boiling liquid at normal atmospheric pressure (1013 mbar), a concentrator lowers the pressure inside the chamber. Lower pressure means the boiling point drops dramatically. A substance that normally boils at 100°C might evaporate at 30–40°C under reduced pressure.

This protects delicate molecules from thermal damage while significantly speeding up the process.

4. Efficient Vapor Removal

As the solvent evaporates, the vapor must be continuously removed. Modern concentrators integrate vacuum pumps and cold traps that quickly pull vapor away from the sample, preventing condensation and ensuring a smooth evaporation flow.

5. Even Distribution of Heat and Airflow

Some concentrators include spinning rotors, angled tube positions, or airflow designs that keep the evaporation process uniform across all samples. This prevents one tube from finishing early while another evaporates too slowly.

Together, these features allow researchers to concentrate samples in minutes rather than hours. It’s a combination of physics and engineering that takes an everyday process—boiling—and turns it into a controlled, precise laboratory technique.

Here you can see how all these factors combine to accelerate evaporation while maintaining sample integrity.