Manufacturing feedstock from fruit by-product processing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9909260-B2
Application number	US-201715431400-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 13, 2017
Priority date	Apr 18, 2012
Publication date	Mar 6, 2018
Grant date	Mar 6, 2018

Abstract

A system and method of manufacturing a feedstock for producing paper fiber from fruit of a plant may include providing a by-product source inclusive of fiber from the edible fruit after a process for removing a majority of the edible fruit is used to produce a food. One or more treatment processes to brighten the fruit by-product may be performed. The feedstock may be produced from the brightened fruit by-product.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method of manufacturing a feedstock from edible fruit by-product, said method comprising:
generating an edible fruit food product and a fruit by-product including pulp with fiber and pectin by processing edible fruit;
processing the fruit by-product to brighten the pulp and to yield a feedstock of brightened fruit by-product with fiber and pectin;
supplying the feedstock of brightened fruit by-product to a reactor tank;
applying an agent to the feedstock in the reactor tank to cause the pectin in the feedstock to degrade so as to separate the fiber from the pectin;
isolating the fiber from the feedstock after the pectin has degraded and substantially removed from the fiber; and
supplying the isolated fiber to a process for generating an article including the isolated fiber.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein processing the edible fruit product includes processing citrus to yield a citrus by-product.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the generating includes generating fruit by-product selected from the group consisting of albedo, pulp, and endocarp.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein generating the fruit by-product includes generating fruit by-product using a source selected from the group consisting of pellets for animal feed and fresh-never dried fruit by-product.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein using a source includes using pellets, wherein the pellets are selected from the group consisting of dried pellets and partially dried pellets.

6. The method according to claim 4 , further comprising removing binding material from the pellets.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein processing the fruit by-product to brighten the pulp includes performing one or more treatments of washing or bleaching.

8. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising washing the fruit by-product at a temperature between about 40° C. to about 70° C.

9. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising dewatering the brightened fruit by-product.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein processing the fruit by-product includes partially drying the brightened fruit by-product.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein partially drying the brightened by-product includes compressing the brightened fruit without a binding agent.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein producing the feedstock includes processing the fruit by-product with a water content between approximately 40% and approximately 60% water weight.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the article is a paper article.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the article is a packaging material.

Assignees

• Coca Cola Co

Inventors

• Moss Peter R
• Gainey Simon
• Bippert Doug A
• Crandall Philip G
• Garg Rajesh Kumar
• Robinson Kim W

Classifications

• D21H11/12 Primary

  Pulp from non-woody plants or crops, e.g. cotton, flax, straw, bagasse · CPC title

• D21C9/10

  Bleaching {; Apparatus therefor} · CPC title

• D21C5/00 Primary

  Other processes for obtaining cellulose, e.g. cooking cotton linters (obtaining fibres for spinning D01C); {Processes characterised by the choice of cellulose-containing starting materials} · CPC title

• D21H21/32 Primary

  Bleaching agents (bleaching cellulose pulp D21C9/10) · CPC title

• D21H27/10

  Packing paper (packaging materials of special type or form B65D65/38) · CPC title