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US 4,136,131 AGranted
Extraction of rubber or rubberlike substances from fibrous plant materials
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of Agriculture
InventorRussell A. Buchanan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Fibrous plant materials, such as from the Guayule shrub, which contain rubber or other rubberlike polymeric hydrocarbons, are subjected to the simultaneous action of compressive and shear forces to reduce them to a coherent, shaped plastic mass, thereby enabling efficient and economical solvent extraction of the rubber or rubberlike hydrocarbons.
Claims6
A process for extracting polymeric hydrocarbon substances, selected from the group consisting of rubber and rubberlike polymeric hydrocarbons, from fibrous plant materials containing the same, comprising the following steps:
- a. subjecting said plant materials to the simultaneous action of compressive and shear forces under nonaqueous conditions, wherein said forces are sufficient to reduce said fibrous plant material to comminuted fibrous matter and released polymeric hydrocarbon substances and to cause the comminuted fibrous matter and polymeric hydrocarbon substances to cohere into a plastic mass, and thereby producing said plastic mass;
- b. shaping the plastic mass into particles;
- c. extracting the polymeric hydrocarbon substances from the shaped particles with a solvent;
- and
- d. recovering said polymeric hydrocarbon substances.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.