The centrifugation equilibrium problem is formulated and solved using a new procedure in which the specified variables are the temperature, system volume, particle dimensions and concentrations, angular speed, cell length, and cell distance from the rotation axis. As a result, we obtain the concentration profiles for all types of particles present in the system, which are considered to be immersed in a fluid. The particles are modeled as hard nonattractive spherocylinders using an equation of state, but the procedure is not restricted to any geometrical shape, and can be used with any equation of state available. The fluid is treated as a continuous medium, responsible for centrifugal buoyancy. We make calculations for colloidal suspensions of silica, often used for separations in biotechnology. Results are in good agreement with experiments and show excellent agreement in comparison with Monte Carlo simulations. Our calculations also predict focusing and shifting phenomena that have been experimentally observed in separations of fine particles. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.