Apparatus and process useful for solvent extraction of organic material from compositions containing the same.

摘要

Apparatus and process useful in the separation of undesirable organics from various types of compositions including sludge. The apparatus comprises a contactor vessel, a sludge conduit for conveying sludge to the contactor vessel, and a sludge cutter for reducing the sludge conveyed by the conduit to reduced cross-section extrudates for deposition in the contactor vessel. The sludge cutter includes a foraminous member and can operate to roughen the surface of the extrudates to provide increased surface area for contacting with solvent. The sludge cutter is arranged to effect free fall of the reduced cross-section extrudates from the sludge cutter for initiating breakup of the extrudates into reduced length segments. A deflector preferably is positioned in the path of the free-falling extrudates to promote further breakup of the extrudates into relatively short segments or pellets. Provision is made for reversing the sludge cutter for flow of sludge through the sludge cutter in opposite directions, thereby to enable self-cleaning of the sludge cutter. The process comprises the steps of: forming a porous fixed bed of the composition in a contactor vessel, contacting the composition in the bed with at least one organic solvent capable of dissolving the extractable material to form an effluent containing the solvent and extractable material, and admitting water into the contactor vessel for flow through the bed to displace residual effluent remaining in the vessel and at least partially filling the vessel with water. A one-way drive arrangement is provided to enable operation of a first rotatable operator independently of a second rotatable operator while using only a single drive shaft to rotate both operators.