Evidence of past explosions is revealed in the image - huge lobes of 20-million-degree Celsius gas (the red loops in the image at approximately the 2 o'clock and 7 o'clock positions) that extend over dozens of light-years on either side of the black hole.
The element to be purified is first incorporated into a chemical that can be turned into a gas. (In this case, the exact compound is still proprietary information.) Then an infra-red laser is shone through the gas.