In light of the elevating pressures toward adopting intensifying technologies, centrifugal extractors are increasingly drawing attention as a promising alternative to traditional extraction equipment. Recently, many fields have applied them in research and that resulted in a considerable amount of information that may be hard to follow. To keep interested researchers updated, this work presents the state‐of‐the‐art status of those devices. That is, the different types of centrifugal extractors are first surveyed with emphasis on those available on the market nowadays. Then, their recent applications are covered with exclusion of two fields: oil‐water separations and nuclear industry, as the purpose is to accent centrifugal extractors' potential and compatibility with the widest possible range of applications beyond traditional ones. A further section addresses the hydrodynamics of annular centrifugal contactors that form a major subfamily of centrifugal extractors. Those annular variants have received special focus throughout this work, since not only are they the most encountered devices in literature but also still to date under development with latest versions being 3D‐printed.

Although annular centrifugal extractors (ACCs) have been increasingly applied in the process industry recently, their complex fluid dynamics is still not fully explained in the literature. This could be one of the major reasons why their current industrial implementation is not up to their potential. This work aims to enhance the understanding of ACC hydrodynamics by focusing on liquid holdup and distribution in the variant CINC V 02. First, several sources causing holdup variation are investigated with the help of a model simulating the liquid surface inside the device. Then, the factors determining liquid content in both chambers are presented. The standard shut‐down procedure to measure holdup is eventually elaborated on, and an improved procedure is proposed.

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