Apparatus for distilling and controlling proportion of components of a mixture

Claim 1

IN A PROCESSING APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING A FIRST CONSTITUENT AND AT LEAST ONE OTHER CONSTITUENT AND WHEREIN THE CONCENTRATION OF SAID FIRST CONSTITUENT IN SAID MIXTURE IS DEPENDENT UPON A CONTROLLABLE PROCESS CONDITION, THE IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING MEANS FOR CONTROLLING SAID PROCESS TO PRODUCE A PRODUCT CONTAINING A SPECIFIC CONCENTRATION OF SAID FIRST CONSTITUENT WHICH COMPRISES MEANS FOR SUBSTANTIALLY CONTINUOUSLY WITHDRAWING AT LEAST A SAMPLE PORTION OF SAID FLUID MIXTURE MEANS FOR PROVIDING A SOURCE OF REFERENCE FLUID MIXTURE CONSISTING OF SAID FLUID MIXTURE CONTAINING SAID SPECIFIC CONCENTRATION OF SAID FIRST CONSTITUENT FIRST ADIABATIC EXPANSION MEANS FOR RECEIVING SAID WITHDRAWN SAMPLE PORTION OF SAID FLUID MIXTURE AND FOR ADIABATICALLY EXPANDING SAID SAMPLE PORTION OF SAID FLUID MIXTURE FROM AN INITIAL TEMPERATURE T1 AND AN INITIAL PRESSURE P1 INTO A FIRST ZONE AT A LOWER PRESSURE P2, SECOND ADIABATIC EXPANSION MEANS FOR RECEIVING SAID REFERENCE FLUID MIXTURE AND FOR ADIABATICALLY EXPANDING AT LEAST A PORTION OF SAID REFERENCE FLUID MIXTURE FROM SAID INITIAL TEMPERATURE T1 AND SAID INITIAL PRESSURE P1 INTO A SECOND ZONE AT SAID LOWER PRESSURE P2, MEANS COMPRISING A CONSTANT TEMPERATURE BATH HAVING CORRESPONDING FIRST AND SECOND CONSTANT TEMPERATURE COILS FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY PASSING SAID SAMPLE PORTION OF SAID FLUID MIXTURE AND SAID REFERENCE FLUID MIXTURE,