Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

A process for the continuous extraction of mixtures of organic substances including high boiling point constituents and/or constituents which do not boil but which melt with at least one solvent in the supercritical state, selected from the group consisting of CO.sub.2, propane, butane, pentane, petroleum ether, water, and having a critical temperature, T.sub.k, and a critical pressure, P.sub.k, the process including providing an extraction vessel which comprises an extraction column, the extraction column extending vertically, having a head portion at the upper end thereof and a sump portion at the lower end thereof, and having a temperature gradient which decreases with increasing height from the sump portion to the head portion, wherein the sump portion has a temperature effective to maintain extraction residue in a viscous state which permits continuous removal thereof from the sump portion, and wherein the head portion has a temperature effective to provide an optimum solution of the constituents to be extracted in the at least one solvent in the critical state; and extracting the mixture of organic substances with the at least one solvent in the supercritical state at a pressure, P, ranging from P>P.sub.k up to P<400 bar and at a temperature, T, of at least T>T.sub.k to provide a charged fluid phase comprised of extracted substances.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim