Patent ID: 7560022

Claim:
An apparatus for the continuous processing of fluids, comprising: a source of supercritical fluid; a sub-system comprising a reactor in which an untreated fluid to be processed is atomized in a supercritical fluid; the sub-system being arranged for entry of the supercritical fluid at a first end of the reactor to create a flow of the supercritical fluid through the sub-system; the sub-system containing high-pressure atomizing jet spray orifices arranged to atomize the untreated fluid to be processed at a high linear flow velocity directly into the flow of the supercritical fluid, wherein the high-pressure atomizing jet spray orifices are arranged to solublize a plurality of components of the untreated fluid to be processed in the supercritical fluid to create a homogenous suspension phase in the sub-system; the high-pressure atomizing jet spray orifices are arranged to introduce the untreated fluid to be processed into the reactor at a point separate from the first end of the reactor; and the reactor contains an ultrasonic gun at a second end of the reactor arranged to add micro-mixing agitation; and a thermal energy source for providing thermal energy to said sub-system; wherein the sub-system is arranged to fractionate the plurality of components of the untreated fluid to be processed based on differing solubilities of the plurality of components of the untreated fluid to be processed in the supercritical fluid, the plurality of components comprising desired components and undesired components; and wherein said apparatus is compact enough so as to be used for continuous mobile processing.