MULTITASK EQUIPMENT AND METHODS FOR DISTILLATION, STEAM DISTILLATION AND SOLID-LIQUID EXTRACTION USING MICROWAVES AS A POWER SOURCE.

摘要

1.- PROBLEM TO SOLVE: The distillation, steam distillation and solid-liquid extraction are performed by equipment designed in such a manner that executes a single operation. The traditional heating sources such as electric heating blankets and butane gas are ineffective from the energy point of view. 2. SOLUTION: This invention consists in methods and a single equipment for performing three unitary operations of the Chemical Engineering: distillation, steam distillation and solid-liquid extraction using microwaves as a heating source. 3. The invention consists in a cylindrical-shaped vertical tube (1) working as a distillation column and packaging support (5) for the distillation and as a solid support for the steam distillation. The distillation column is connected to a spherical-shaped container (6) by the lower portion thereof, and connected to a collector (7) by the upper portion thereof, which is useful as: distillation head, immiscible liquid separator and solid-liquid extractor . The upper portion of the product collector includes a heat exchanger or refrigerant (12). The content of the cylindrical-shaped container (6) is heated inside the cavity of a microwave oven. 4. APPLICATIONS: distillation of binary mixtures, extraction of essential oils from soluble solids and extraction of secondary metabolites, amongst others.