Processing biomass

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9605288-B2
Application number	US-201615183938-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 16, 2016
Priority date	Apr 30, 2008
Publication date	Mar 28, 2017
Grant date	Mar 28, 2017

Abstract

Biomass (e.g., plant biomass, animal biomass, microbial, and municipal waste biomass) is processed to produce useful products, such as food products and amino acids.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of converting a starchy material into a plastic comprising:
(a) providing a recalcitrance-reduced starchy material by:
(i) irradiating a recalcitrant starchy material with a recalcitrance-reducing dose of ionizing radiation; and/or
(ii) obtaining a recalcitrance-reduced starchy material from a biomass resulting from irradiating a recalcitrant starchy material with a recalcitrance-reducing dose of ionizing radiation;

(b) converting the provided recalcitrance-reduced starchy material into a plastic, wherein the plastic is a polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), wherein the plastic is produced by culturing with Alcaligenes eutrophus bacteria; and
(c) obtaining said plastic.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the starchy material comprises greater than about 5% by weight starch.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the starchy material has an amylose to amylopectin ratio of between 20:80 and 30:70.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the starchy material is selected from the group consisting of maltodextrin, acid-modified starch, base-modified starch, bleached starch, oxidized starch, acetylated-starch, phosphate-modified starch, corn starch, wheat starch, potato starch, rice starch and combinations thereof.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the starchy material comprises at least one starch selected from the group consisting of arracacha, buckwheat, banana, barley, cassaya, kudzu, oca, sago, sorghum, regular household potatoes, sweet potato, taro, yams, bean, lentils, and peas.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method generates at least one of poly-β-hydroxybutyrate and poly-β-hydroxyvalerate.

Assignees

• Xyleco Inc

Inventors

• Medoff Marshall

Classifications

• Y02A40/818

  Alternative feeds for fish, e.g. in aquacultures · CPC title

• A61K8/9728

  Fungi, e.g. yeasts · CPC title

• A61K8/9717

  Rhodophycota or Rhodophyta [red algae], e.g. Porphyra · CPC title

• A61K8/9789

  Magnoliopsida [dicotyledons] · CPC title

• A61K8/9722

  Chlorophycota or Chlorophyta [green algae], e.g. Chlorella · CPC title