The disclosure generally relates to refractive polarization converters, polarized color combiners using the refractive polarization converters, and in particular polarized color combiners using the refractive polarization converters that can be useful in small size format projectors such as pocket projectors. The disclosed refractive polarization converters include at least one birefringent prism that can separate an unpolarized light beam into divergent polarized light beams having orthogonal polarization directions.