Process for the manufacture of butanol or acetone
AssigneeCeltic Renewables Limited
InventorsJane Samantha White, Kenneth Alexander Leiper, Martin Tangney, Sandra Messenger
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process for the manufacture of butanol, acetone and other renewable chemicals utilizes one or more of by-products of the manufacture of malt whisky, such as pot ale and spent lees, biomass substrates, such as paper, sludge from paper manufacture and spent grains from distillers and brewers, and diluents, such as water and spent liquid from other fermentations. The process includes treating a substrate to hydrolyze it and fermenting the treated. Also provided is a biofuel including butanol manufactured according to the process.
Claims16
A process for the manufacture of butanol and/or acetone, the process comprising:
- obtaining pot ale, pot ale being a by-product of spirit distillation for production of whiskey, wherein the pot ale is a distillation residue from a copper distillation vessel comprising a distillable wash from a yeast fermentation of grain comprising malted barley;
- treating a substrate comprising a carbohydrate source selected from the group consisting of paper, sludge from paper manufacture, food waste, fruit and vegetable waste, bread, baking industry waste, seaweed and seaweed extracts, forestry derivatives, wood chips, chocolate, algae, and macro algae with the pot ale to solubilise at least a portion of the carbohydrate source to provide a treated substrate;
- and
- fermenting the treated substrate in the presence of a culture of butanol- and/or acetone-forming micro-organisms while controlling free copper ions therein to maintain a concentration of less than 20 μM to provide a fermented product containing butanol and/or acetone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.