Processing biomass

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9745609-B2
Application number	US-201514750995-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 25, 2015
Priority date	Apr 30, 2008
Publication date	Aug 29, 2017
Grant date	Aug 29, 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

What is claimed is:

1. A method of producing an amino acid, the method comprising:
providing a processed biomass comprising cellulose, hemicellulose, starch or combinations thereof, the processed biomass having a recalcitrance level lower than a recalcitrance level of the same biomass that has not undergone processing,
wherein the level of recalcitrance is determined by saccharifying in the presence of a cellulase,
wherein the processed biomass is prepared by irradiating the biomass with an electron beam radiation of at least 5 Mrad under suitable conditions so as to produce polysaccharides of molecular weight 5-200 kD; and
incubating the processed biomass with a microorganism for a suitable period of time to produce the amino acid.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the amino acid is selected from the group consisting of L -amino acids and D -amino acids.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the microorganism is selected from the group consisting of Lactobacillus, Streptococcus lactis, E. coli, Bacillus subtillis , and Corynebacterium glutamicum.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the biomass comprises a cellulosic or lignocellulosic material.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the biomass comprises a material selected from the group consisting of okra seed, Lipinus mutabilis , nuts, Jessenia bataua, Oenocarpus, Stokesia laevis, Veronia galamensis , and Apodanthera undulate.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the biomass has been irradiated at a dose rate of from about 1 Mrad/s to about 10 Mrad/s.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising converting the processed biomass to glucose and biosynthesizing the aromatic amino acids tryptophan, phenylalanine, and tyrosine from the glucose through the shikimic acid pathway.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising isolating the amino acid.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising combining the isolated amino acid with an excipient.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein incubating is carried out using a fed-batch fermentation process.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the amino acid is selected from the group consisting of L -glutamic acid (monosodium glutamate (MSG)), L -aspartic acid, L -phenylalanine, L -lysine, L -threonine, L -tryptophan, L -leucine, L -isoleucine, L -methionine, L -histidine, and L -phenylalanine, and DL -methionine.

Assignees

• Xyleco Inc

Inventors

• Medoff Marshall

Classifications

• A61P31/04

  Antibacterial agents · CPC title

• A61K8/9789

  Magnoliopsida [dicotyledons] · CPC title

• D21C5/005

  Treatment of cellulose-containing material with microorganisms or enzymes · CPC title

• C12P13/20

  Aspartic acid; Asparagine · CPC title

• A23K50/80

  for aquatic animals, e.g. fish, crustaceans or molluscs · CPC title