A process for continuously extracting oil from a solid or liquid oil-bearing
material
comprises (a) removing air from the extraction system, (b) introducing an inert
gas into the extraction system at a pressure sufficient to maintain a normally
gaseous solvent in liquid state, (c) introducing an oil-bearing material into a
silo, (d) passing the oil-bearing material from the to a jet pump mixing device,
(e) introducing a liquified normally gaseous solvent into the jet pump mixing device,
(f) mixing the oil-bearing material and the solvent in the jet pump mixing device
for a time sufficient to permit complete wetting of oil-bearing material by the
solvent to form a mixture, (g) heating the mixture to near supercritical conditions;
(h) passing the mixture through an extractor having a screw conveyor adapted to
rotate at a first rpm range and a centrifugal drum adapted to rotate at a second
rpm range, (i) treating the mixture within the extractor in such a manner that
supercritical temperature and pressure are attained, wherein treating the mixture
includes a combination of increasing the rpms of the centrifugal drum, increasing
the temperature inside the extractor and increasing the inert gas pressure inside
the extractor, (j) extracting oil from the mixture by pressure diffusion provided
by the combination of increased rpms, increased temperatures and increased inert
gas pressures at supercritical conditions, (j) removing liquids extracted from
the mixture through a liquids exit port, and (k) removing solids extracted from
the mixture through a solids exit port.