Patent ID: 8118582

Claim:
An apparatus for producing biobased carriers for dispersal of biological and chemical molecules, comprising: a premixer having a first inlet, a first outlet, a cavity configured for receiving a wet coproduct and a binder through the first inlet, and stirring means within the cavity for premixing the wet coproduct and binder into a substantially homogeneous mixture; a high shear mixer having high shear means with a screen member and being configured to receive the substantially homogeneous mixture from the premixer, the high shear means being for forcibly moving the substantially homogeneous mixture across and through the screen member and out the of the high shear mixer in the form of nucleation enhanced particles, and wherein the high shear means is configured to provide a high stress shearing action and to shear mix the substantially homogeneous mixture to substantially uniformly create particles in a predetermined particle diameter range; and agglomerator means having an interior chamber sized and configured to receive the nucleation enhanced particles from the high shear mixer and for transforming the nucleation enhanced particles into substantially spherical biomass pellets.