Apparatus and method for simultaneous operation of refining cellulosic biomass and mixing enzymes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10030223-B2
Application number	US-201514683053-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 9, 2015
Priority date	Apr 9, 2014
Publication date	Jul 24, 2018
Grant date	Jul 24, 2018

Abstract

An apparatus comprises: a hopper for feeding biomass; a horizontal extruder comprising a cylindrical housing and a rotatable screw mounted in the housing, in which one side of the housing is connected to the hopper, and an outlet provided at the other side of the housing is connected to an inlet for feeding biomass into a refiner; and a refiner comprising a stator disc having a cooling water space formed on the outer peripheral surface thereof, one or more enzyme feeding holes provided in a refining region adjacent to the circumference of the stator disc, and a biomass inlet provided at the central portion thereof, and a refining disc which is disposed so as to form a gap with the inner surface of the stator disc and to have a refining region opposite to that of the stator disc and is rotated by a separate motor.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An enzyme mixing-biomass refining apparatus comprising: (a) a cylindrical housing comprising an extruder and a rotatable screw mounted in the housing, wherein one side of the housing is connected to a feedstock feeding unit, and an outlet provided at the other side of the housing is connected to a biomass inlet of a refiner; and (b) the refiner comprising: a stator disc having a cooling water unit formed on the outer peripheral surface thereof, one or more enzyme feeding holes provided in a refining region thereof, and a biomass inlet provided at the central portion thereof; and a refining disc which is provided so as to form a gap with the inner surface of the stator disc and to have a refining region opposite to that of the stator disc and is rotated by a separate motor,
wherein the biomass inlet is disposed at an axial center of the stator disc,
wherein the holes are penetratingly disposed at a distance of 0.5-10 cm inward from the circumference of the stator disc in a direction from the circumference to the axial center of the stator disc, and
wherein the cooling water unit maintaining the temperature of a gap formed between the stator disc and the refining disc disposed opposite thereto between 40° C. and 80° C. is disposed so as to be brought into contact with the outer peripheral surface of the stator disc.

2. The enzyme mixing-biomass refining apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the holes are connected to an enzyme inlet pipe connected to an enzyme feeding unit.

3. A method for simultaneously performing biomass refining and enzyme mixing using the enzyme mixing-biomass refining apparatus of claim 1 , the method comprising: (a) horizontally transferring biomass by rotation of an extruder screw into a gap, formed between a stator disc of a refiner and a refining disc disposed opposite thereto, through a biomass feeding opening provided at a center of the stator disc; (b) maintaining an internal temperature of the gap, formed between the stator disc and the refining disc disposed opposite thereto, at a temperature between 40° C. and 80° C., by circulating cooling water to a cooling water space, provided on the outer peripheral surface of the stator disc; and (c) saccharifing the biomass by feeding an enzyme into one or more holes provided in a refining region adjacent to a circumference of the stator disc, and rotating the refining disc to refine the biomass while mixing the biomass with the enzyme.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein an additive other than the enzyme is further fed into the holes of the step of (c).

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the enzyme is one or more selected from the group consisting of endo-1,3(4)-beta-glucanase, laminarinase, exo-1,2-1,6-alpha-mannosidase, alpha-N-arabinofuranosidase, feruloyl esterase, endo-1,5-alpha-arabinanase, pectinase, polygalacturonase, pectin esterase, aspartic protease, metallo protease, endo-(1,4)-mannanase, phytase, alpha-glucuronidase, beta-glucuronidase, hexenuronidase, alkaline phosphatase, acid phosphatase, alpha-galactosidase, beta-galactosidase, beta-mannosidase, and alpha-fucosidase.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the additive is buffer, an alkaline solution or a surfactant.

7. The method of claim 3 , wherein the biomass has a solid content of 10-30%.

Assignees

• Sk Innovation Co Ltd
• Sk Energy Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kim Taewan
• Koo Bonwook
• Koo Minsu

Classifications

• C12P7/10

  substrate containing cellulosic material · CPC title

• C12M21/12

  for producing fuels or solvents (C12M21/04 takes precedence; liquid carbonaceous fuels C10L1/00, solid fuels C10L5/00) · CPC title

• C12P19/02

  Monosaccharides (2-ketogulonic acid C12P7/60) · CPC title

• D21D1/30

  Disc mills · CPC title

• C12M1/33

  Disintegrators · CPC title