A process for fractionating a plant material to provide isolated extractives, the process includes pretreating the plant material to provide a fluidized plant material, subjecting the pretreated fluidized plant material to high frequency pulses and shear forces without denaturing bioactive aspects of one or more components of the plant material to provide a first liquid fraction having extractives to be isolated and a first fractionated plant material, separating the first liquid fraction having extractives from the first fractionated plant material, and isolating extractives from the first liquid fraction.

The present invention is directed to a method and device to isolate compounds from plant material using vibrational pulsing, vibrational decanting, vibrational sieving and vibrational rinsing. A susceptible liquid is generated by vibrational agitation, decanted when in a vibrating container and then collected by passing over a series of vibrating screens and then rinsed with water while collected on the vibrating screens and the residue collected. The isolated compound can either be collected in the decant or retained on the screens. In an embodiment of the invention, the vibrational rinsing step reduces unwanted impurities isolated.

Some variations provide an automated system for solvent extraction of a feed stock to produce a botanical extract, fats, oils, or other desirable solute, comprising: an extraction reactor; a distillation unit; and a second-stage purge chamber or a second-stage purge process utilizing the extraction reactor itself. The second-stage purge chamber or process receives or holds the solid material along with a heated inert non-condensable gas and/or solvent vapor, to recover residual solvent contained in the solid material. Other variations provide a process comprising: feeding a raw material and a solvent into an extraction reactor; generating dissolved material in rich solvent and extracted solid material; distilling the rich solvent to generate purified product and recovered solvent; conveying the solid material and a heated inert non-condensable gas and/or solvent vapor into a second-stage purge chamber, or holding the solid material in the same vessel, to recover residual solvent; and recovering the purified product.

System and methods are disclosed with a holding tank to receive liquid and cryogenically frozen biomass; a cavitator to generate shock waves and pressure variations, wherein the shock waves and pressure variations are to the biomass and the liquid to separate oil from the biomass; a sensor to determine when oil concentration exceeds a threshold; and a valve to transfer the oil and liquid to an oil tank when the threshold is met.

An apparatus for disrupting solid materials suspended in a fluid medium includes a plurality of hammer elements that transfer acoustic energy from an acoustic transducer into a concentration zone between heads of the hammer elements and inner walls of a fluid duct which act as an anvil, thereby causing cavitations to form within the concentration zone. The transducer may be a cylindrical transducer compression fit into an acoustic projector from which the hammer elements extend towards a distal end, and mass balance elements extend towards a proximal end. The apparatus can be used to efficiently extract juice from fruit pulp, separate oils from plant matter, and process various organic and inorganic materials.

A copper/molybdenum separation system uses sea water in the roughing circuit and desalinated water in cleaning circuit. In both roughing circuit and cleaning circuit, hydrophobic engineered media are used to recover the mineral particles of interest. The cleaning circuit includes a molybdenum loading stage configured to contact the conditioned pulp with the engineered media in an agitated reaction chamber, and load the hydrophobic molybdenite on the engineered media.

A system and method for extracting liquid and solid hydrocarbons and their derivatives from natural and man-made hydrocarbon sources, including but not limited to oil sands, bitumen, asphalt, roofing shingles, and other hydrocarbon articles of manufacture. The hydrocarbon sources are prepared by dissolving, crushing and/or grinding. The prepared hydrocarbon sources are subjected to agitation where the solvent and hydrocarbon source as thoroughly mixed. The results of the agitation are then separated in one or both of a mesh screen shaker and a centrifuge. The mesh screen shaker subjects the materials to medium frequency oscillations. The centrifuge subjects the materials to high G-forces. The combined processes separate the hydrocarbons from solids and residual solids to less than 0.2% by weight.

A plant oil extraction system may include a reservoir tank, an agitator tank, a filtration system, a boiler tank, a condenser unit, and a vacuum chamber. The reservoir tank may hold a solvent to be used in the system process. The solvent may be deposited into the reservoir tank through a fill port. A pump may transfers the solvent from the reservoir tank to the agitator tank. The agitator tank may hold dry plant matter. The agitator tank may separate oil from the plant matter by use of solvent where the mixture of solvent and plant oil drains to the boiler tank through a filter system. The boiler tank comprise of a tank stack (condenser) used for separating extracted plant oil from the solvent by boiling off the solvent and a vacuum pump used to extract residual solvent from the extracted plant oil and generally purge the extracted plant oil.

A water-based extraction process for extracting bitumen from mined oil is provided comprising providing a water-based mixture containing bitumen; and introducing nanobubbles to the mixture to attach to bitumen and, thereby, extract the bitumen from the water-based mixture, wherein a nanobubble has a diameter of less than 5,000 nm.

Some variations provide an automated system for solvent extraction of a feed stock to produce a botanical extract, fats, oils, or other desirable solute, comprising: an extraction reactor; a distillation unit; and a second-stage purge chamber or a second-stage purge process utilizing the extraction reactor itself. The second-stage purge chamber or process receives or holds the solid material along with a heated inert non-condensable gas and/or solvent vapor, to recover residual solvent contained in the solid material. Other variations provide a process comprising: feeding a raw material and a solvent into an extraction reactor; generating dissolved material in rich solvent and extracted solid material; distilling the rich solvent to generate purified product and recovered solvent; conveying the solid material and a heated inert non-condensable gas and/or solvent vapor into a second-stage purge chamber, or holding the solid material in the same vessel, to recover residual solvent; and recovering the purified product.