Processing biomass

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9534242-B2
Application number	US-201514745123-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 19, 2015
Priority date	May 20, 2009
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

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 fluid medium and a saccharifying agent.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of saccharifying lignocellulosic material, the method comprising:
providing in a vessel, a slurry comprising a lignocellulosic material, water, and an enzyme, the slurry having greater than 20 weight percent solids; and
drawing slurry material from the vessel and jetting the slurry material into the vessel, while saccharifying at least a portion of the lignocellulosic material, producing a sugar.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein jetting the slurry material comprises providing a jet mixer having a nozzle, and directing the slurry material through the nozzle under pressure.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein a pump generates the pressure, the nozzle being in fluid communication with the pump.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the nozzle comprises a shroud surrounding an impeller, the impeller configured to provide jet flow through the nozzle.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the jet mixer directs slurry material in a first direction through a first end of a nozzle when operating in a first mode, and in a second direction through a second end of the nozzle when operating in a second mode.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein jetting the slurry material comprises directing the slurry material through a plurality of nozzles under pressure, the pressure generated by one or more pumps, each of the plurality of nozzles being in fluid communication with at least one of the one or more pumps.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein jetting the slurry material comprises drawing slurry material through an inlet to a pump, the inlet being in fluid communication with the vessel; and pumping the slurry material through a nozzle under pressure, the nozzle being in fluid communication with the pump.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the pump is located outside of the vessel.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the inlet draws slurry material from near the surface of the slurry in the vessel.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the inlet draws slurry material from near the bottom surface of the vessel.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the slurry material jets into the vessel through a nozzle at a velocity between 5 to 150 meters per second.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein jetting the slurry material into the vessel causes a secondary entrained flow of aqueous slurry material in the vessel.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein jetting the slurry material into the vessel provides effective mixing in the vessel while minimizing damage to the enzyme.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the vessel has a flat bottom surface.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the vessel has an arcuate bottom surface.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the vessel has a volume of at least 4,000 L.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the vessel has a volume of at least 40,000 L.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the initial solids concentration of the lignocellulosic material in the slurry is at least 20 weight percent, and wherein the lignocellulosic material comprises corn cob.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the lignocellulosic material has been exposed to irradiation, the irradiation provided by one or more of: an ion beam and an electron beam.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the lignocellulosic material has received at least at least 10 Mrad of irradiation.

21. The method of claim 19 , wherein the lignocellulosic material has received irradiation at a dose rate of at least 1 Mrad per second.

22. The method of claim 1 , wherein the lignocellulosic material has a bulk density of less than about 0.5 g/cm 3 .

23. The method of claim 1 , wherein the enzyme comprises a cellulase.

24. The method of claim 1 , further comprising fermenting at least a portion of the sugar with a microorganism.

Assignees

• Xyleco Inc

Inventors

• Medoff Marshall
• Masterman Thomas Craig

Classifications

• C12M21/12

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

• C12M29/06

  Nozzles; Sprayers; Spargers; Diffusers (per se B01F23/231, B01J19/26) · CPC title

• C12M41/48

  Automatic or computerized control (automatic analysis G01N35/00) · CPC title

• C12M41/34

  of gas · 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