Perfusion culture apparatus and centrifugal separator

Abstract

Provided are a perfusion culture apparatus which can be utilized in long-duration culturing and which has a simple mechanism and is easy to use; and a centrifugal separator. The perfusion culture apparatus has a centrifugal separation tank 30 for centrifugally separating a culture solution W delivered from a culture tank 10, and a discharge mechanism 60 for causing a centrifugally separated supernatant of the culture solution to be discharged from the centrifugal separation tank. The centrifugal separation tank is provided with a cylindrical inner wall surface 32, and is configured so as to rotate about the center axis of the inner wall surface and thereby centrifugally separate the culture solution. The discharge mechanism includes a suction pipe 62 provided with a first end portion 64 which faces the inner wall surface and is disposed closer to the center axis than the culture solution during centrifugal separation, and a second end portion 66 which is disposed outside the centrifugal separation tank. In a state in which the centrifugal separation tank is rotated and the culture solution is centrifugally separated, the air in the centrifugal separation tank is sucked from the first end portion of the suction pipe, and the centrifugally separated supernatant of the culture solution is thereby discharged, together with the air, from the second end portion.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.