METHOD AND UNIT FOR CO-EXTRACT PRODUCTION Russian patent published in 2018 - IPC C11B9/00 

FIELD: essential oils industry.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to essential oil industry. Method for obtaining CO₂-extract from a plant raw material includes grinding of raw materials, loading into the extractor, introducing of gaseous carbon dioxide into the lower part of the extractor, extraction with liquid carbon dioxide in the extractor at equilibrium pressure by repeated circulation, draining the miscella, followed by distillation and condensation of carbon dioxide. In this case, before extraction, the air is removed from the layer of crushed vegetable material by passing carbon dioxide gas at a pressure of 6.76 MPa, until a pressure of 3.3 MPa is reached in the extractor, the extraction is carried out by the method of irrigation with the supply of pure solvent to each stage, number of which is determined by the achievement of exhaustive extraction, followed by holding for 15–20 minutes, the final discharge of the miscella and the removal of gaseous carbon dioxide by heating the oil meal to a temperature of 34–40 °C. A unit for producing CO₂-extract from plant material includes a cascade-mounted condenser, storage tank of liquid carbon dioxide, heated evaporator, two parallelly installed extractors connected by pipelines to each other and to a evaporator which is connected by a pipeline to a shut-off valve with a condenser and equipped with a pipeline with a stop valve for discharging the finished CO₂-extract. Storage tank of liquid carbon dioxide is connected by a pipeline with a shut-off valve with extractors, while the lower parts of the extractors are connected by means of a common pipeline with a three-way tap for draining the miscella with a heated evaporator in connection with the finished CO₂-extract, by means of a common pipeline with a three-way stop valve for draining the miscella, the upper parts of the extractors on one side are connected by a pipeline to a valve with a heated evaporator, on the other hand they are equipped with a pipeline with a shut-off valve to exit to the gas holder and a shut-off valve for the discharge of gaseous carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

EFFECT: invention makes it possible to increase the extraction rate and the amount of extractive substances by organizing extraction process according to the cross-current flow of a solvent with respect to materials.

3 cl, 2 dwg, 1 tbl