Equipment whose function is to separate phases or components of a process stream — solid from gas, solid from liquid, liquid from liquid or gas from liquid — by difference in density, size or permeability.
Usual types (own families and handbooks in Phase 1):
- Cyclones and hydrocyclones — centrifugal separation with no moving parts;
- Gravity separators — settling vessels, oil-water separators (e.g. coalescing plates);
- Filters — filter press, bag filter, cartridge elements;
- Membranes — micro/ultra/nanofiltration and reverse osmosis;
- Centrifuges and decanters — rotation-accelerated separation.
In ISO 14224:2016, process separators appear in the vessels and static equipment branch; the functional group adopted here also gathers the rotating separation machines (centrifuges), following process-engineering practice — a declared adaptation, not a single class of the standard.