Process for drying and solvent-extraction of water wet solids

This invention is an improved continuous process for drying and solvent extraction of water-wet solids without experiencing sticky solids comprising the steps of (1) mixing the input water-wet with solvent, (2) feeding said mixture into two or more stages of evaporation in parallel or in series to evaporate some of the water present in the input solids or sludges and to extract some of the indigenous solvent-soluble compounds from the solids, (3) feeding the slurry from the parallel or serial stages of evaporation in series to one or two final evaporation stages operated at pressures above atmospheric at preferably between pressures of 18 psia and 150 psia and more preferably between pressures of 18 psia and 50 psia, (4) feeding the slurry from the final stages of evaporation to a centrifuge or other device for separating most of the solvent from the solids, (5) subjecting the water-wet solids to none, one, or multiple extraction stages before, during, or after the evaporation stages, (6) at times, feeding the centrifuge centrate to a solvent distillation system to recover the extracted solvent-soluble compounds from the solvent, and (7) at times, feeding the final centrifuge cake to a desolventizer to remove and recover virtually all of the residual solvent from the solids.