Processes for producing industrial products from plant lipids

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10472587-B2
Application number	US-201514793663-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 7, 2015
Priority date	Jul 7, 2014
Publication date	Nov 12, 2019
Grant date	Nov 12, 2019

Abstract

The present invention relates to methods of producing industrial products from plant lipids, particularly from vegetative parts of plants. In particular, the present invention provides oil products such as biodiesel and synthetic diesel and processes for producing these, as well as plants having an increased level of one or more non-polar lipids such as triacylglycerols and an increased total non-polar lipid content. In one particular embodiment, the present invention relates to combinations of modifications in two or more of lipid handling enzymes, oil body proteins, decreased lipid catabolic enzymes and/or transcription factors regulating lipid biosynthesis to increase the level of one or more non-polar lipids and/or the total non-polar lipid content and/or mono-unsaturated fatty acid content in plants or any part thereof. In an embodiment, the present invention relates to a process for extracting lipids. In another embodiment, the lipid is converted to one or more hydrocarbon products in harvested plant vegetative parts to produce alkyl esters of the fatty acids which are suitable for use as a renewable biodiesel fuel.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process for producing an oil product, the process comprising the steps of
(i) treating, in a reactor, a composition comprising
(a) vegetative plant parts whose dry weight is at least 2 g and which have a total non-polar lipid content of at least 5% by weight on a dry weight basis,
(b) a solvent which comprises water, an alcohol, or both, and
(c) optionally a catalyst,

wherein the treatment comprises heating the composition at a temperature between 50° C. and 450° C. and at a pressure between 5 and 350 bar for between 1 and 120 minutes in an oxidative, reductive or inert environment, and
(ii) recovering oil product from the reactor
a) at a yield of between 36% and 60% by weight relative to the dry weight of the vegetative plant parts if the solvent is water, or
b) at a yield of between 36% and 70% by weight relative to the dry weight of the vegetative plant parts if the solvent comprises an alcohol,

thereby producing the oil product.

2. The process of claim 1 , which is characterised by one or more of:
(i) the vegetative plant parts have a dry weight of at least 1 kg,
(ii) the composition has a solids concentration between 5% and 90%,
(iii) the catalyst comprises NaOH or KOH at a concentration of 0.1M to 2M, or both NaOH and KOH at a total concentration of 0.1M to 2M,
(iv) the treatment time is between 10 and 60 minutes,
(v) the solvent comprises 80% water, and the oil product comprises 30% of C13-C22 hydrocarbon compounds,
(vi) the solvent comprises 50% methanol and the oil product comprises 50% fatty acid methyl esters (FAME),
(vii) the recovered oil product has a water content of less than 15% by weight, and
(viii) the yield of oil product is at least 2% greater by weight relative to a corresponding process using corresponding vegetative plant parts whose non-polar lipid content is less than 2% on a dry weight basis.

3. The process of claim 1 which further comprises one or both of:
(i) hydrodeoxygenation of the recovered oil product, and
(ii) treatment of the recovered oil product with hydrogen to reduce the levels of ketones or sugars in the oil product.

4. The process of claim 1 , wherein the vegetative plant parts comprise plant leaves, stems or both.

5. A process for producing an oil product from plant oil, the process comprising the steps of:
i) obtaining a vegetative plant part having a total non-polar lipid content of between 30% and 75% (w/w dry weight),
ii) either
a) converting at least some of the lipid in the vegetative plant part of step i) to the oil product by treating, in a reactor, a composition comprising (1) the vegetative plant part, (2) a solvent which comprises water, an alcohol, or both, and (3) optionally a catalyst, or
b) physically processing the vegetative plant part of step i), and converting at least some of the lipid in the processed vegetative plant part to the oil product by treating, in a reactor, a composition comprising (1) the processed vegetative plant part, (2) a solvent which comprises water, an alcohol, or both, and (3) optionally a catalyst, and

iii) recovering the oil product,
a) at a yield of between 36% and 60% by weight relative to the dry weight of the vegetative plant parts if the solvent is water, or
b) at a yield of between 36% and 70% by weight relative to the dry weight of the vegetative plant parts if the solvent comprises an alcohol,

wherein the treating comprises heating the composition at a temperature between 50° C. and 450° C. and at a pressure between 5 and 350 bar for between 1 and 120 minutes in an oxidative, reductive or inert environment, thereby producing the oil product.

6. The process of claim 5 , wherein the step of physically processing the vegetative plant part comprises one or more of rolling, pressing, crushing or grinding the vegetative plant part.

7. The process of claim 5 in which the volume of the oil product is at least 1 liter.

8. The process of claim 5 , wherein the oil product is a hydrocarbon product.

9. The process of claim 5 , wherein the vegetative plant part is an aerial plant part or a green plant part.

10. The process of claim 9 , wherein the vegetative plant part is a plant leaf or stem.

11. The process of claim 5 wherein the vegetative plant part is harvested from the plant at a time between about the time of flowering of the plant to about the time senescence of the plant has started.

12. The process of claim 5 , wherein the vegetative plant part has one or more or all of the following features:
i) a total non-polar lipid content of at least 35% (w/w dry weight),
ii) a total TAG content of at least 35% (w/w dry weight),
iii) oleic acid comprises 19% of the total fatty acid content in the non-polar lipid in the vegetative plant part,
iv) palmitic acid comprises 20% of the total fatty acid content in the non-polar lipid in the vegetative plant part,
v) linoleic acid comprises 15% of the total fatty acid content in the non-polar lipid in the vegetative plant part, and
vi) α-linolenic acid comprises less than 15% of the total fatty acid content in the non-polar lipid in the vegetative plant part.

13. The process of claim 5 , wherein the oil product comprises alkyl esters, and the process further comprises blending the alkyl esters with petroleum based fuel.

14. The process of claim 13 , wherein the alkyl esters are methyl esters.

15. The process of claim 8 , wherein the hydrocarbon product is a fatty acid ester, an alkane, a mixture of longer chain alkanes, an alkene, a biofuel, a bioalcohol, biochar, or a combination of carbon monoxide, hydrogen and biochar.

16. The process of claim 15 , wherein:
i) if the hydrocarbon product is a fatty acid ester, then the fatty acid ester is a fatty acid methyl ester or a fatty acid ethyl ester;
ii) if the hydrocarbon product is an alkane, then the alkane is methane, ethane or a longer-chain alkane; and
iii) if the hydrocarbon product is a bioalcohol, then the bioalcohol is ethanol, propanol, or butanol.

17. The process of claim 1 , wherein the composition has a solids concentration between 5% and 90% by weight.

18. The process of claim 1 , wherein the catalyst comprises NaOH or KOH at a concentration of 0.1M to 2M, or both NaOH and KOH at a total concentration of 0.1M to 2M.

19. The process of claim 1 , wherein the treatment time is between 10 and 60 minutes.

20. The process of claim 1 , wherein the solvent comprises 80% water and the oil product comprises 30% of C13-C22 hydrocarbon compounds.

21. The process of claim 1 , wherein the solvent comprises 50% methanol and the oil product comprises 50% fatty acid methyl esters (FAME).

22. The process of claim 1 , wherein the recovered oil product has a water content of less than 15% by weight.

23. The process of claim 1 , wherein the yield of oil product is at least 2% greater by weight relative to a corresponding process using corresponding vegetative plant parts whose non-polar lipid content is less than 2% on a dry weight.

24. The process of claim 1 , wherein in step i), the treatment comprises heating the composition at a temperature of between 270° C. and 350° C.

25. The process of claim 5 , wherein in step ii), the treating comprises heating the composition at a temperature of between 270° C. and 350° C.

26. The process of claim 1 wherein the solvent comprises an alcohol and the oil product comprises at least 1.5-fold more fatty acyl

Assignees

• Vanhercke Thomas
• Petrie James Robertson
• El Tahchy Anna
• Singh Surinder Pal
• Reynolds Kyle
• Liu Qing
• Leita Benjamin Aldo
• Commw Scient Ind Res Org

Inventors

• Vanhercke Thomas
• Petrie James Robertson
• El Tahchy Anna
• Singh Surinder Pal
• Reynolds Kyle
• Liu Qing
• Leita Benjamin Aldo

Classifications

• C11B3/00

  Refining fats or fatty oils · CPC title

• C11C3/10

  Ester interchange · CPC title

• C11C3/12

  by hydrogenation · CPC title

• C11C3/00

  Fats, oils, or fatty acids by chemical modification of fats, oils, or fatty acids obtained therefrom (sulfonated fats or oils C07C309/62; factice C08H; drying oils C09F) · CPC title

• C11B3/02

  by chemical reaction {(C11B3/003 takes precedence)} · CPC title