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US 9,315,589 B2Granted
Processes for the removal of rubber from non-hevea plants
AssigneeBridgestone Corporation
InventorsYingyi Huang, Mark Smale, Robert White, Hiroshi Mouri, William Cole
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Provided herein are organic solvent-based processes for the removal of rubber from non-Hevea plants such as guayule shrubs. By the use of the processes, solid purified rubber can be obtained that contains 0.05-0.5 weight % dirt, 0.2-1.5 weight % ash, and 0.1-4 weight % resin (when it has been dried so as to contain 0.8 weight % volatile matter).
Claims21
A method of increasing the rubber recovery from non-Hevea plants comprising:
- A. utilizing briquettes comprising (i) compressed chopped plant matter having an average size of 1.5″ or less, comprising bagasse, rubber, resin, residual water and (ii) no more than 5 weight % leaves from a non-Hevea plant, wherein the briquettes have a density that is 40-325% higher than the density of the non-compressed plant matter;
- B. subjecting the briquettes to an organic solvent extraction process whereby the briquettes are mixed with at least one polar organic solvent and at least one non-polar organic solvent to form a slurry that contains plant matter, organic solvents and 0.5-10 weight % water;
- and
- C. processing the slurry to remove bagasse and resin and recover at least 95-99% by weight of the rubber contained within the briquettes.
1 more element
An organic solvent-based process for the removal of rubber from non-Hevea plants comprising:
- a. utilizing a slurry containing (i) non-Hevea plant matter, the plant matter comprising bagasse, rubber and resin;
- (ii) at least one non-polar organic solvent;
- and
- (iii) at least one polar organic solvent, wherein the slurry contains 10-50% by weight plant matter, 50-90% by weight of (ii) and (iii) combined, and 0.5-10 weight % water from the plant matter;
- b. removing a majority of the bagasse from the slurry to produce a miscella and a first bagasse portion;
- c. optionally adding additional polar organic solvent, non-polar organic solvent or a combination thereof to the miscella to form a reduced viscosity miscella where any polar organic solvent and non-polar organic solvent may be the same or different than those utilized in (a) and where the amount of any additional polar organic solvent that is added is less than the amount that causes the rubber contained with the reduced viscosity miscella to coagulate;
- d. removing 80-95 weight % of bagasse from the miscella resulting from (b) or (c) (based on the total weight of bagasse present in the miscella) to form a purified miscella and a second bagasse fraction wherein the majority of the bagasse that is removed has a particle size of less than 105 microns;
- e. optionally treating the purified miscella to remove additional bagasse thereby producing a clarified rubber solution that contains 0.01-1% by weight of bagasse additional bagasse that is removed has a particle size greater than 45 microns;
- f. increasing the relative amount of polar organic solvent as compared to non-polar organic solvent within the clarified rubber solution so as to coagulate the rubber;
- and
- g. producing solid purified rubber from the coagulated rubber where when said solid purified rubber contains 0.8 weight % volatile matter it also contains 0.05-0.5 weight % dirt, 0.2-1.5 weight % ash and 0.1-4 weight % resin;
- wherein at least (a)-(e) are conducted at a temperature or temperatures of 10-80° C. and a pressure of 35 to 1000 kPa.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.