Methods and systems for reducing the level of one or more impurities that are present in a pretreated cellulosic material and/or distillate

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9278379-B2
Application number	US-201313917169-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 13, 2013
Priority date	Jun 15, 2012
Publication date	Mar 8, 2016
Grant date	Mar 8, 2016

Abstract

The present invention relates to methods and systems for remediating one or more impurities (e.g., diacetyl) that are present in manufacturing an alcohol (e.g., ethanol) from cellulosic biomass. The methods and systems include reacting the one or more impurities with at least one treatment compound (e.g., an oxidizing agent, an alkali compound, or a mixture thereof) to form a reaction product that can be separated from the alcohol.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of reducing the concentration of diacetyl that is present in a pretreated cellulosic material comprising:
providing a pretreated cellulosic material comprising:
at least one monosaccharide; and
diacetyl;
fermenting the pretreated cellulosic material to convert it into a fermentation composition wherein the at least one monosaccharide is converted into an alcohol

contacting the fermentation composition with at least one treatment compound so that the at least one treatment compound reacts with the diacetyl to form a reaction product thereby reducing the concentration of the diacetyl in the fermentation composition, wherein the at least one treatment compound is chosen from an oxidizing agent, an alkali compound, and mixtures thereof.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pretreated cellulosic material has been pretreated to break down at least a portion of hemicellulose and/or cellulose into the at least one monosaccharide.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising exposing the pretreated cellulosic material to ultraviolet light to reduce the concentration of the diacetyl.

Assignees

• Poet Res Inc

Inventors

• Carlson David Charles
• Gomer Blake J
• Jenks Casey C
• Kirschman-Rollag Sharil
• Plack Kristine Nicole
• Reis Melissa R

Classifications

• B01D3/002

  by continuous methods · CPC title

• C07C29/88 Primary

  by treatment giving rise to a chemical modification of at least one compound (chemisorption C07C29/76) · CPC title

• Y02E50/17

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• C07C31/08

  Ethanol · CPC title

• B08B1/00 Primary

  Cleaning by methods involving the use of tools (cleaning hollow articles by methods or apparatus specially adapted thereto B08B9/00) · CPC title