Vegetable oils, sugar, instant coffee, medicines from medicinal plants, etc. are made by processing solid starting material using extraction with liquid solvent(s).

Its initial step is passing the extractant through bulk of the solid in a possibly intimate contact. The contact, however, may be inhibited by air present in interstices between and pores within the pieces to be contacted with the extractant. The air will block penetration of the extractant into some of such cavities. This results in slow and incomplete extraction.

It is therefore desirable to provide a method to remove air blocks in the material to be processed and/or increase the diffusion rates.

High pressure equipment is conventionally used to do this. However, it is expensive, energy-consuming and not always efficient.

The project is aimed at developing a rapid, effective, environmentally friendly and low-cost method to ensure complete extraction of valuable components from solid materials.

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