Processing materials

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9453250-B2
Application number	US-201414224381-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 25, 2014
Priority date	Jan 20, 2010
Publication date	Sep 27, 2016
Grant date	Sep 27, 2016

Abstract

Biomass feedstocks (e.g., plant biomass, animal biomass, and municipal waste biomass) are processed to produce useful products, such as fuels. For example, systems are described that can convert feedstock materials to a sugar solution, which can then be fermented to produce ethanol. Biomass feedstock is saccharified in a vessel by operation of a jet mixer, the vessel also containing a liquid medium and a saccharifying agent.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
placing a liquid medium comprising water and at least 20% solids of an unsaccharified electron beam irradiated lignocellulosic feedstock in a vessel;
mixing the feedstock and water with a jet mixer to form a slurry;
saccharifying the electron beam irradiated lignocellulosic feedstock in the vessel, while mixing the slurry with the jet mixer, to form a sugar solution, and in the same vessel, converting the sugar solution to a product, utilizing an enzyme and/or a microorganism while continuing to mix with the jet mixer,
wherein the irradiated lignocellulosic feedstock has been irradiated with a dose of at least 10 Mrad.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises distillation of the product.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein distillation comprises vacuum distillation.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein distillation is performed at a vacuum of less than 70 Torr.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein distillation is performed at ambient temperature.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the product comprises an alcohol.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the feedstock has a bulk density of less than about 0.75 g/cm3.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the liquid medium contains a saccahrifying agent that comprises an enzyme.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising monitoring the glucose level of a mixture of the feedstock, the liquid medium and the saccharifying agent during saccharification.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising adding additional feedstock and saccharifying agent during saccharification.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the vessel comprises a tank.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein converting comprises fermentation of the sugar solution.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising monitoring oxygen level in the vessel during fermentation.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the sugar solution further comprises xylose.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising converting xylose to xylitol.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein at least 30% solids of the lignocellulosic material is placed in the vessel.

Assignees

• Xyleco Inc

Inventors

• Medoff Marshall
• Masterman Thomas Craig

Classifications

• Y02E50/16

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• C12P19/02

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

• C12P19/14 Primary

  produced by the action of a carbohydrase {(EC 3.2.x)}, e.g. by alpha-amylase {, e.g. by cellulase, hemicellulase} · CPC title

• C12P7/02

  containing a hydroxy group · CPC title

• B01D3/002 Primary

  by continuous methods · CPC title