Methods of producing compounds from plant material

A method of producing organic compounds from corn material, comprising:

• providing a mixture comprising corn material and water;
• heating the mixture;
• filtering the mixture and collecting a filtrate comprising one or more of starch, starch fragments, hemicellulose and fragments of hemicellulose;
• exposing the filtrate to a catalyst to reduce at least some components contained in the filtrate;
• and
• fragmenting of at least some of the one or both of hemicellulose and fragments of hemicellulose to produce smaller fragments.

A process of forming one or more of glycerol, ethylene glycol, propylene glycol and lactic acid from plant matter, comprising:

• adding water to plant matter to form a mixture,
• heating the mixture;
• separating the mixture to produce a liquid portion comprising hemicellulose and fragments of hemicellulose, the separating comprising at least one of filtering, pressing and centrifuging;
• converting at least some of the hemicellulose and fragments of hemicellulose to linear poly-alcohols;
• and
• cleaving at least some of the linear poly-alcohols to produce the one or more of glycerol, ethylene glycol, propylene glycol and lactic acid.

A method of producing sterols, comprising:

• mixing a material comprising plant material and water to form a mixture;
• heating the mixture;
• separating the mixture to produce a liquid portion and a solid-comprising portion, the separating comprising at least one of pressing, filtering and centrifuging;
• and
• treating the solid-comprising portion with one or more solvents to extract a material comprising one or more sterols selected from the group consisting of campesterol, campestanol, stigmasterol, sitosterol and sitostanol.

A method of extracting oils from corn material, comprising:

• providing corn material;
• mixing the corn material with water to form a mixture;
• recovering a solid-comprising portion of the mixture by filtration;
• treating the solid-comprising portion with a solvent to extract a material comprising one or more oils:
• and
• after the treating, collecting the solvent containing the material.

A method of processing plant material, comprising:

• providing a plant material;
• adding water to the destarched plant material to form a mixture;
• separating the mixture into a liquid component and a solid-comprising component, the liquid component comprising saccharides;
• and
• treating the liquid portion in the presence of a catalyst to simultaneously hydrolyze and hydrogenate the saccharides, the treating producing at least one of lactic acid, propylene glycol, ethylene glycol and glycerol.