Processing biomass and petroleum containing materials

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10092890-B2
Application number	US-201815879749-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 25, 2018
Priority date	Apr 30, 2008
Publication date	Oct 9, 2018
Grant date	Oct 9, 2018

Abstract

Biomass (e.g., plant biomass, animal biomass, and municipal waste biomass) is processed to produce useful products, such as fuels. For example, systems can use feedstock materials, such as cellulosic and/or lignocellulosic materials and/or starchy materials, to produce ethanol and/or butanol, e.g., by fermentation.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
treating a cellulosic or lignocellulosic material, that has been exposed to an ion beam which effects a chain scission reaction, with a microorganism to extract a fuel from the cellulosic or lignocellulosic material, wherein the ion beam comprises charged particles having a specific energy of 10 MeV/u or more.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ion beam is generated by an accelerator, the accelerator having a filter to remove undesired species.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ion beam comprises positively charged ions.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ion beam comprises at least one of carbon ions, oxygen ions, and noble gas ions.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ion beam comprises at least one of platinum ions, palladium ions, rhenium ions, iridium ions, ruthenium ions, aluminum ions, nickel ions, and osmium ions.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising exposing the material to an electron beam.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising exposing the material to a reactive gas during exposure of the material to the ion beam.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the reactive gas comprises ozone.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein exposing the material to the ion beam comprises exposing the material to a first type of ions from a first ion beam, and exposing the material to a second type of ions from a second ion beam.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first and second types of ions have different charges.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first and second types of ions have different masses.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein during exposure to the ion beam the material is flowing.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein exposure to the ion beam breaks chemical bonds in at least a portion of the cellulosic or lignocellulosic material, leading to a reduction in molecular weight of at least a portion of the cellulosic or lignocellulosic material.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein exposure to the ion beam leads to isomerization of at least a portion of the cellulosic or lignocellulosic material, the isomerization effecting a reduction in viscosity.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ion beam composition is selected to effect the addition of a functional group to at least a portion of the cellulosic or lignocellulosic material, the functional group effective to increase ionic mobility within the functionalized portion.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ion beam comprises hydride ions.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the chain scission reaction comprises a ring-opening chain scission reaction.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ion beam comprises ions that behave chemically as Lewis acid moieties or Lewis base moieties when exposed to the cellulosic or lignocellulosic material.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ion beam comprises protons.

Assignees

• Xyleco Inc

Inventors

• Medoff Marshall

Classifications

• C12P7/10

  substrate containing cellulosic material · CPC title

• C12P5/02

  acyclic {(C12P5/007 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• C10L2290/06

  Heat exchange, direct or indirect · CPC title

• C12P7/02

  containing a hydroxy group · CPC title

• C10G15/10

  by particle radiation · CPC title