Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology – Treatment of micro-organisms or enzymes with electrical or... – Cell membrane or cell surface is target
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-06
2002-02-05
Weber, Jon P. (Department: 1651)
Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology
Treatment of micro-organisms or enzymes with electrical or...
Cell membrane or cell surface is target
C435S173600, C435S173700, C435S259000, C435S306100, C422S022000, C422S185000, C422S185000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06344349
ABSTRACT:
FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a process and system for extraction of cellular matter and, more particularly, to a process and system for electrical extraction of intracellular matter from biological matters such as biological waste materials, and to intracellular matter extracts obtained by implementing the process and system.
Organic matter exists throughout any biological entity, for example, human, animal or plant, living or not. A biological entity is made up of organic and inorganic matter in the forms of cellular and non-cellular matter, where biological cells are known as the building units of a living entity. Cellular matter obtained from waste of biological entities serves as a plentiful source of desirable organic compounds and extracts, such as phenolic compounds, known to be very useful as ingredients in agricultural, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food, formulations and products.
Examples of crude biological matter include animal or human compost; plant matter such as raw, dried, extracted or powdered flowers, roots, stems, peels, seeds, fruits and the like; animal solids such as mammal, fish or poultry solid wastes, for example, internal organs or giblets having substantial amounts of fats and oils, derived from growing farms or processing facilities; and liquid organic sewage, such as raw municipal sewage and related sources of liquid organic waste.
There are many processes and steps along the way in obtaining pure organic compounds present in crude biological matter. Upstream processing involves early stages of purification of the above types of biological matter while still in a very crude form. Currently, there are several challenges of upstream processing, among them devising purification methods and systems which are able to separate or isolate intracellular matter, and which are cost effective at the same time in order to be applied to large scale manufacturing environments. There are forms of crude biological matter which simply are not amenable to currently available inexpensive technologies of separation or isolation of cellular matter, as expensive techniques and systems need to be used. Avoiding the use of expensive techniques and systems for obtaining cellular matter from very crude biological matter translates to providing industries, which use purified biological matter as raw materials for manufacturing high performance end products such as medicines, cosmetics, and food and feed flavorings and additives, with low cost raw materials, which ultimately translates to less expensive end products. This effect is desired by both manufacturers and by consumers of the end products.
There is thus a need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have a process and system for separating and obtaining cellular matter from crude biological matter. Extraction is a general type of separation process based on selectively extracting, removing, or drawing out a target substance from a matrix of several substances by chemical, thermal, or mechanical means such as by solvents separation in liquid-liquid extraction, distillation, evaporation, or cold pressing. A plethora of different methods, processes, systems, and apparatus exist for performing extractions.
A commonly used method of liquid-liquid extraction for isolating organic compounds such as phenols, oils, and fats, involves using polar or non-polar organic solvents such as alcohol, isopropanol, acetone, phenol or DMSO as an extracting agent by selectively dissolving target substances. Methods and systems of liquid-liquid extractions have the disadvantages of involving relatively hazardous and costly organic solvents. It would be desirable to eliminate, or at least minimize, quantities of such solvents required for liquid-liquid extraction of organic substances.
Cold pressing is another commonly used method of extracting cellular matter from crude biological matter, which involves subjecting crude biological matter to high pressures, and mechanically pressing out the cellular matter from the crude biological matter. The pressed out cellular matter extract is separated from the remaining crude biological matter matrix, collected, and filtered in order to obtain target substances such as useful organic compounds. Methods of cold pressing usually result in low yields of the target substances, especially in cases where the target substances are not readily pressed out or mechanically separated from crude biological matrices.
There is thus a need for, and it would be useful to have, a process and system for electrical extraction of intracellular matter from biological matter such as biological waste and to obtain intracellular matter extracts by implementing such a process and system, in a cost effective manner.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The process and system for electrical extraction of intracellular matter of the present invention are based on preparing a mixture of biological matter featuring cells, and an electro-conductive liquid, and electrifying the mixture by transmitting controlled cycles of pulses and pauses of electrical current into the mixture using electrodes, whereby the pulses of electrical current pierce holes into or perforate the membranes of the cells, enabling the release of intracellular matter from the cells for collecting and separating into target intracellular matter extract and solid waste. Including a pause in each cycle of transmitting electrical current enables firm control of processing conditions, including extent of extraction, temperature effects, and pressure effects, during the electrical extraction process.
Electrical extraction of the present invention is applicable to a wide variety of biological matter originating from human, animal, and plant entities. Extracts so obtained include highly concentrated liquid fertilizer, valuable elements and nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and their oxides, and, valuable organic compounds such as phenols, oils, and fats, which are used for manufacturing a diversity of end products of the agricultural, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a process, system, and apparatus for electrical extraction of intracellular matter from biological matter.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide an extract of intracellular matter electrically extracted from a biological matter.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a liquid fertilizer extract derived from solid human or animal compost.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a collection of substances derived from intracellular matter of plant material such as flowers, roots, stems, peels, seeds, fruits and the like.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a collection of oils electrically extracted from plant material such as pulp of orange peels, olives, or lavender.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a collection of oils electrically extracted from internal organs or giblets of fish, such as cod liver.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a collection of oils electrically extracted from animal solids, such as -poultry fats sludge flotation.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a process for reducing levels of odor, COD, and BOD in liquid organic sewage, such as raw municipal sewage, by electrical extraction of intracellular matter, where the liquid organic sewage includes biological matter, and the biological matter includes cells.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a system for reducing levels of odor, COD, and BOD in liquid organic sewage by electrical extraction of intracellular matter, where the liquid organic sewage includes biological matter, and the biological matter includes cells.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a liquid organic sewage with reduced levels of odor, COD, and BOD.
Thus, according to the present invention, there is provid
Fichman Matitiahu
Govberg Mickel
Moldavsky Leonid
Shuster Kim
Decant Technologies LLC
Friedman Mark M.
Guttman Harry J.
Weber Jon P.
LandOfFree
Process and system for electrical extraction of... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Process and system for electrical extraction of..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Process and system for electrical extraction of... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2982033