Methods of recovery of pristine polymers and hydrocarbon mixtures from a sorted waste feedstock or mixtures of waste feedstock, which are with or without organic additives are disclosed. The methods include Sequential Selective Extraction and Adsorption (SSEA), Hydrothermal Processing (HTP), and a combination of SSEA and HTP. Exemplarily, SSEA includes selecting a first solvent (S1), inputting the S1 and a sorted feedstock free of organic additives into an extractor, heating, waiting, and separating insolubles forming a pristine polymer solution. Exemplarily, HTP includes inputting a hydrothermal solvent and a sorted feedstock free of organic additives into a reactor, heating to form subcritical or supercritical H.sub.2O, waiting, causing thermal depolymerization to produce a slurry, cooling, venting formed gases and separating the hydrocarbon mixture.

Disclosed is a process for the alteration of the ratio of the specific gravities of the oil and water phases resulting from the conversion of biomass to liquid products, the reduction of the conductivity and of metals of the product mixture, which each can aid in the removal of solids contained in the oil phase; and a liquid-liquid extraction method for partitioning desirable carbon containing compounds into the oil phase and undesirable carbon containing compounds into the water phase.

An apparatus includes a lubricating oil tank storing a lubricating oil. An oil separator separates the lubricating oil from a working fluid discharged from an expander of a waste heat recovery system. A lubricating oil return conduit is connected between the oil separator and the lubricating oil tank. A working fluid return conduit is connected between the lubricating oil tank and the oil separator. A vaporizer unit is installed in the lubricating oil tank to vaporize a liquefied working fluid mixed with the separated lubricating oil in the lubricating oil tank.

A coalescing filter element provides an integrated filter element with a three stage design with a hydrophobic or hydrophilic coalescing layer. A coalescing filter element comprises: a) At least one particulate filtration layer; b) A coalescing layer promoting coalescing of water particles, wherein the coalescing layer is downstream of the at least one particulate filtration layer relative to the flow of fluid through the element; c) An annular coalescing space downstream of the coalescing layer; d) A sump in a lower portion of the filter element in fluid communication with the annular coalescing space; and e) A hydrophobic layer downstream of the annular coalescing space, wherein fluid being cleaned by the element flows through the hydrophobic layer. The coalescing layer may be a hydrophobic or a hydrophilic coalescing layer. A filter assembly will include the coalescing filter element of the present invention.

A food processing system includes at least one receptacle containing a composition of water and insoluble solids, a centripetal force-based solid/liquid separator having an inlet, a solids outlet, and a liquid outlet, and a pump able to direct the composition from the receptacle to the inlet of the separator. The separator is configured to separate the composition into a solids stream including the insoluble solids and a liquid stream including water and to direct the solids stream through the solids outlet and the liquid stream through the liquid outlet.

A neutralization/water separation device for an esterified product including: a neutralization tank in which a crude product mixture containing alcohol and an ester compound, a neutralizing agent, and water are put to produce a neutralized mixture; a water separation tank disposed below the neutralization tank to divide the neutralization mixture into a floating layer and an aqueous layer; a partition wall extending downward from a ceiling of the water separation tank to provide a lower passage in the water separation tank; and a transfer line that transfers the neutralized mixture from the neutralization tank to the water separation tank, where the water separation tank includes: a first water separation part into which the neutralized mixture is introduced from the neutralization tank through the transfer line; and a second water separation part into which the neutralized mixture is introduced from the first water separation part through the lower passage, where the first water separation part and the second water separation part are partitioned by the partition wall.

The present invention is directed to systems and methods for evaluating performance, performing process control, optimization and design of gravity separation process systems that are used to separate immiscible liquid dispersions (e.g., water-in-oil, oil-in-water mixtures) and emulsions for two-phase (liquid-liquid) or three-phase (gas-liquid-liquid) systems. According to one aspect, the design, simulation and control of such systems is performed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software that is configured for determining the separation efficiency of separators on the basis of the true geometry and multidimensional flow field and for a distribution of droplet sizes with the influence of the emulsion concentration on the rheology of the oil-in-water or water-in-oil dispersion. The results of the CFD simulations can be used to adjust input parameters of the separator to maximize the separation efficiency of the separator such that it outputs liquid streams containing minimal amounts of immiscible liquid dispersions.

A system may include a catch tray coupled with a flow distributor. A mesh screen and carriage may be positioned within the catch tray. A drive bar may be coupled with the carriage and a pitman arm. A gear box may be coupled with a motor and the pitman arm. A process may include distributing contaminated fluid onto the mesh screen. A screen plane of the mesh screen may be at a screen angle that is oblique relative to the direction of the force of gravity. The screen plane is defined by a top surface of the mesh screen. The process may include moving the carriage in a reciprocating linear motion by rotating the pitman arm, and spraying a liquid onto the mesh screen. Liquid may flow through the mesh screen forming clarified liquid, and contaminate may move along the top of the mesh screen to a contaminate outlet.

A system and method for processing unconditioned syngas first removes solids and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOC), then removes volatile organic compounds (VOC), and then removes at least one sulfur containing compound from the syngas. Additional processing may be performed depending on such factors as the source of syngas being processed, the products, byproducts and intermediate products desired to be formed, captured or recycled and environmental considerations.

A system and method for processing unconditioned syngas first removes solids and semi -volatile organic compounds (SVOC), then removes volatile organic compounds (VOC), and then removes at least one sulfur containing compound from the syngas. Additional processing may be performed depending on such factors as the source of syngas being processed, the products, byproducts and intermediate products desired to be formed, captured or recycled and environmental considerations.