Combined tangential shear homogenizing and flashing apparatus having a uniform rotor/stator gap dimension

A combined tangential shear homogenizing and flashing apparatus for destructuring pretreated biomass comprising:

• a housing having an inlet and at least one outlet, the housing having an axis extending therethrough, the inlet being connectable to a source of pressurized pretreated biomass while the outlet is connectible in direct fluid communication with a downstream utility;
• and
• a stator and a rotor mounted within the housing, the stator and rotor being confrontationally disposed and spaced apart by a predetermined uniformly dimensioned axial gap thereby to define a mixing zone communicating with the inlet and the outlet;
• the rotor being connectable to a motor operative to rotate the rotor with respect to the stator,
• the gap between the rotor and the stator being sized such that, in use, with a predetermined pressure difference defined between the inlet and the outlet, rotational movement of the rotor with respect to the stator imparts a tangential shear to a predetermined volume of pretreated biomass introduced into the mixing zone at a predetermined pressure and temperature while the biomass is moving through the mixing zone in the direction of the pressure difference,
• the tangential shear being able to homogenize the volume of pretreated biomass and the pressure difference being able to cause a partial phase separation of the homogenized biomass into vapor and liquid phases such that the pretreated biomass undergoes at least a three-fold total volumetric increase.