1. The fundamentals of the osmosedimentation effect are reviewed and its applications to chemical and biochemical separation problems are presented. 2. The osmosedimentation effect (solute sedimentation enhanced by osmotic and reverse-osmotic solvent mass currents spontaneously generated within a vertical dialysis cell) may be described by using standard treatments of non-equilibrium thermodynamics. 3. This effect allows many hitherto unfeasible or very difficult experiments to be performed: polymer and particle MW determination, under gravity or low-speed (1000-5000 rpm) centrifugation; dissolved protein concentration, by low-speed centrifugation; density gradient generation, at low centrifugation speeds; fast separation of fine particles; particle concentration and fractionation, under gravity and low speed centrifugation. 4. Osmocentrifugation methods may be easily implemented in any laboratory, as their requirements are: the availability of standard centrifuges and rotors, inexpensive dialysis cells and cellulose acetate membranes, which can be prepared in the laboratory.203-4297312