Patent ID: 6880772

Claim:
A process of both milling and drying a solvent-moist material comprising: (a) providing a mill-dryer apparatus comprising, (i) a heat exchanger having an inlet and an outlet, (ii) a mill having an inlet and an outlet, (iii) a particulate separating apparatus having an inlet and an outlet, and (iv) a bypass line, the outlet of said heat exchanger being connected to the inlet of said mill by means of a heat exchanger-mill conduit, the outlet of said mill being connected to the inlet of said particulate separating apparatus by means of a mill-separator conduit, the outlet of said particulate separating apparatus being connected to the inlet of said heat exchanger by means of a separator-heat exchanger conduit, said heat exchanger, mill, particulate separating apparatus, heat exchanger-mill conduit, mill-separator conduit and separator-heat exchanger conduit together defining a mill-dryer circuit, and said bypass line providing reversibly closeable gaseous communication between said separator-heat exchanger conduit and a down-stream portion of said mill-dryer circuit relative to said heat exchanger, said bypass line thereby providing optionally at least partial gaseous bypass of said heat exchanger, (b) introducing said solvent-moist material into said mill; (c) circulating a vapor stream throughout said mill-dryer circuit; (d) heating said vapor stream by means of passage through said heat-exchanger; (e) forwarding milled particulate material from said mill to said particulate separating apparatus by means of said vapor stream and said mill-separator conduit; (f) separating said particulate material from said vapor stream in said particulate separating apparatus; (g) forwarding said vapor stream from said particulate separating apparatus through said separator-heat exchanger conduit; and (h) controlling the temperature of said vapor stream by optionally forwarding at least some of said vapor stream through said bypass line.