Apparatus and method for separating sea plants

Abstract From the Canadian patent

The method of separating lambda-carageenan-containing sea plants from kappa-carrageenan-containing sea plants in a mixture of said plants which comprises treating said mixture with an aqueous solution at a pH above about 10 and at a temperature from 5° to 95°C, said solution containing a cation selected from the group consisting of ammonium potassium, rubidium, cesium, calcium, barium strontium and magnesium to, preferentially hydrate the first said plants in said mixture until they exhibit compacted sticky characteristics while the second said plants retain substantially their hard incompactible fronded characteristics, pressing said treated mixture against a perforate surface to extrude …