作为一种新型分离技术，泡沫分离技术具有设备简单、能耗低、易于操作、低浓度条件下效率高和无污染等优点，该技术在降低表面活性物质分离成本方面具有极大的潜力，在工业上得到了广泛的应用。本工作分析了近年来文献报道中应用于分离回收蛋白质、有机污染物、天然产物、金属离子、微藻等的各种泡沫分离设备，并结合泡沫分离技术的发展历程将其分为传统泡沫分离设备和改进泡沫分离设备。重点阐述了改进泡沫分离设备的作用机理和分离效果，突显泡沫分离技术的重要性。改进型泡沫分离设备在一定程度上提高了分离效果，但依然存在一些问题，如很多设备在提高富集比的同时也降低了回收率。

Foam separation as a new separation technology has the advantages of simple equipment, low energy consumption, easy operation, high efficiency under the condition of low target object concentration and no pollution. Foam separation has great potential in reducing the cost of separation of surfactant and has been widely used in industry. Foam separation equipment has an important effect on foam separation. In this review, a variety of foam separation equipment which are used to separate and recover proteins, organic pollutants, natural products, metal ions, microalgae and so on in recent literatures were analyzed. According to the development process of foam separation, foam separation equipment is divided into traditional foam separation equipment and improved foam separation equipment. Currently, traditional foam separation equipment is still widely used, but this type of equipment has certain limitations on the adsorption of target object and foam drainage, especially the foam drainage, which makes it difficult to improve the enrichment ratio. However, on the basis of the traditional foam separation equipment, the separation effect of foam separation can be improved by improving the structure of the equipment, including the shape of separation column, the internal components of separation column, and the series separation column. In this review, improved foam separation equipment is divided into improved single-stage foam separation equipment, multi-stage foam separation equipment, and comprehensively improved foam separation equipment. The function mechanism and separation effect of the improved foam separation equipment are emphatically introduced. Compared with the traditional foam separation equipment, the improved foam separation equipment breaks through the limitations of the traditional foam separation equipment, strengthens the adsorption of the separated material in the gas-liquid interface, promotes the foam drainage and improves the enrichment rate of the target to be separated. Although some progress has been made in the study of improved foam separation equipment, there are still some problems to be solved. In this work, the function mechanism and separation effect of various foam separation equipment are summarized, which has positive significance for the development of foam separation equipment in the future.