Biomass Solvent Extraction and Recovery System
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Solution Overview
Problem
The market demand for alternative tobacco products requires large-scale processing of edible biomass to produce high-quality, tobacco-free alternatives, but existing methods face challenges in solvent recovery, purification, and drying, limiting efficiency and scalability.
Innovation Solution
A process and system for converting leafy edible biomass into alternative tobacco products involving solvent extraction, recovery, purification, and drying, using a solvent and anti-solvent mixture in an extraction vessel, followed by recycling and condensation of solvents, and employing filtration, chromatography, and fluidized-bed drying to produce high-quality biomass solids.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If large-scale processing of biomass is implemented to meet market demand, then productivity increases, but manufacturing complexity and process control difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The large-scale processing system is divided into multiple extraction vessels operating in parallel, with each vessel handling a portion of the total biomass load. This segmentation allows the system to scale capacity by adding modular units rather than overwhelming a single complex system, thereby increasing productivity while managing complexity through standardized repeating modules.
Solution Approach 2:
The extraction vessels are designed as multi-functional units that can perform extraction, solvent recovery, and drying operations within a single integrated system. This universality reduces the number of separate equipment components needed, simplifying the overall process while maintaining large-scale processing capability.
2Manufacturing precision
If solvent extraction is used to obtain high-quality compounds, then manufacturing precision improves, but solvent recovery and purification complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements comprehensive solvent recovery where solvents are captured after extraction, purified to remove extracted compounds, and recycled back to the extraction vessels. This closed-loop approach maintains high extraction quality by ensuring consistent solvent purity while reducing the net amount of solvent requiring treatment, thereby simplifying the recovery system compared to single-pass extraction methods.
Solution Approach 2:
The solvent purification system continuously monitors solvent quality and adjusts purification parameters to maintain optimal extraction conditions. This feedback control ensures consistent manufacturing precision while preventing the accumulation of impurities that would complicate the recovery process, as the system proactively maintains solvent specifications rather than reacting to deviations.
3Manufacturing precision
If extensive drying is performed to remove residual solvent, then product purity improves, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The solvent recovery system performs preliminary solvent removal from the extracted material before the drying stage. By recovering and separating the bulk solvent in the liquid phase prior to drying, the amount of solvent that must be evaporated in the drying stage is dramatically reduced, thereby achieving high product purity with significantly lower energy consumption than direct evaporation methods.
Solution Approach 2:
The system utilizes phase transition of water to ice (freezing) followed by sublimation or controlled thawing as an alternative drying mechanism. This phase change approach removes moisture without requiring high-temperature heating, achieving high product purity while minimizing energy consumption compared to conventional thermal drying methods.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables efficient extraction and drying of biomass, achieving high yields and quality, while recycling solvents and reducing solvent consumption, thus addressing the scalability and efficiency issues in producing alternative tobacco products.
Implementation Method 1
extracting one or more compounds from the biomass feedstock into the liquid solvent mixture
Implementation Method 2
condensing at least a portion of the vapor of the residual solvent, thereby generating condensed recovered solvent
Implementation Method 3
drying the first phase to remove at least a portion of the residual solvent, thereby generating dried extracted biomass solids and a vapor of the residual solvent
Data Source
AI summary
Some variations provide a process for producing an alternative tobacco product from leafy edible biomass, comprising: introducing leafy edible biomass and a liquid solvent mixture to an extraction vessel, wherein the liquid solvent mixture contains a solvent and an anti-solvent; extracting one or more compounds from the biomass into the liquid solvent mixture, to generate a first phase and a second phase; recovering solvent from the second phase, thereby generating recovered solvent; removing one or more compounds from the recovered solvent, thereby generating purified recovered solvent; recycling the purified recovered solvent back to the extraction vessel; drying the first phase to remove residual solvent, thereby generating dried extracted biomass solids and a vapor of the residual solvent; condensing vapor of the residual solvent, thereby generating condensed recovered solvent; recycling the condensed recovered solvent back to the extraction vessel; and recovering the dried extracted biomass solids as an alternative tobacco product.