Method and plant for solvent-free microwave extraction of natural products
AssigneeArchimex
InventorsPhilippe Mengal, Bernard Mompon
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A microwave extraction method involves the steps of placing biological material in an enclosure without any solvent whatsoever and exposing the solvent-free biological material to microwave radiation to free at least some of the natural product, and then separating any residual biological material from the extracted natural product. Additionally, the microwave extraction method involves the steps of applying reduced pressure in the enclosure during the microwave radiation stage and heating the enclosure during at least most of the microwave radiation stage to compensate for the temperature drop resulting from water evaporation from the biological material.
Claims26
A method for the microwave extraction of a natural product from a biological material, said method comprising:
- placing said biological material in an enclosure without any solvent;
- applying microwave radiation to said biological material present in said enclosure, the microwave radiation effective to evaporate at least a part of the water contained in said biological material and the microwave radiation effective to split the cellular structure of said biological material and enable the release of at least a part of said natural product;
- intermittently applying reduced pressure within said enclosure during the application of microwave radiation to further the splitting up of the cellular structure of said biological material induced by application of the microwave radiation;
- heating said enclosure during at least a portion of the microwave radiation application to compensate for the drop in temperature resulting from evaporation of water from the biological material, wherein applying microwave radiation to said biological material, intermittently applying reduced pressure, and heating said enclosure causes hydro-distillation of the natural product by conveying the natural product in water vapor coming from the biological material;
- and
- separating a residual biological material from the natural product.
A method for the solvent-free extraction of at least one extracted natural product from a biological material, the method comprising:
- subjecting the biological material to microwave irradiation;
- intermittently applying a vacuum to the biological material;
- heating the biological material, wherein subjecting the biological material to microwave radiation, intermittently applying a vacuum to the biological material, and heating the biological material causes evaporation of at least a portion of water contained in the biological material and splits the cellular structure of the biological material and thereby releases a portion of the natural product;
- and
- separating the released portion of the natural product from the biological material.
A method of separating a natural product from a biological material, the method comprising:
- placing the biological material in an enclosure, the biological material containing water, the enclosure essentially free of liquid water other than the water contained in the biological material, and the enclosure free of organic solvent;
- releasing at least part of the natural product from the biological material by applying microwave radiation to the biological material, the microwave radiation effective to evaporate at least part of the water contained in the biological material to form water vapor and the microwave radiation effective to split the cellular structure of the biological material;
- intermittently applying reduced pressure within the enclosure during the application of microwave radiation to further split the cellular structure of the biological material induced by application of the microwave radiation;
- hydrodistilling the natural product by conveying the natural product and the water vapor coming from the biological material as an azeotropic mixture;
- and
- separating the natural product from the azeotropic mixture.
A method of separating a natural product from a biological material, the method comprising:
- placing the biological material in an enclosure, the biological material containing water;
- releasing at least part of the natural product from the biological material by applying microwave radiation to the biological material, the microwave radiation effective to evaporate at least part of the water contained in the biological material to form water vapor and thereby split the cellular structures of the biological material;
- intermittently applying reduced pressure within the enclosure during the application of microwave radiation to further split the cellular structure of the biological material induced by application of the microwave radiation;
- conveying the natural product and the water vapor coming from the biological material as an azeotropic mixture;
- and
- separating the natural product from the azeotropic mixture.
A method of separating a natural product from a biological material, the method comprising:
- placing the biological material in an enclosure, the biological material containing water;
- releasing at least part of the natural product from the biological material by applying microwave radiation to the biological material, the microwave radiation effective to evaporate at least part of the water contained in the biological material to form water vapor and thereby split the cellular structure of the biological material;
- heating the enclosure during at least a portion of the microwave radiation application to compensate for a drop in temperature resulting from evaporation of water from the biological material;
- conveying the natural product and the water vapor coming from the biological material as an azeotropic mixture;
- and
- separating the natural product from the azeotropic mixture.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.