Apparatus for the separation and recovery of volume-reduced polystyrene resin gel

A separation/recovery apparatus for heating volume-reduced gel-state polystyrene resin under ambient pressure or reduced pressure, to thereby remove solvent and recover resin, characterized in that the apparatus comprises:

• an apparatus main unit having at the top of the unit a solvent-recovering section for continuously recovering evaporated solvent and having at the bottom of the unit a resin-recovering section for recovering the solvent-removed resin;
• a heating medium flow pipe which is provided inside the apparatus main unit such that the pipe forms a multi-layer structure in the vertical direction and which allows flow of a heating medium inside the pipe;
• a gel-state resin-feeding means for feeding the volume-reduced gel-state polystyrene resin such that the resin is brought into contact with the heating medium flow pipe;
• a resin-holding section provided in the bottom of the apparatus main unit for holding the resin which has flowed down to the member after contact with the heating medium flow pipe;
• a heating means for heating the resin held in the resin-holding section;
• a stirring means for stirring the resin contained in the resin-holding section;
• and
• regulating plates for guiding flow of the volume-reduced gel-state polystyrene resin which flows while being in contact with the heating medium flow pipe, the regulating plates being provided in the vicinity of and along the heating medium flow pipe, with a predetermined spacing between the plates.