Process for the rapid hydrolysis of high solids biomass

A batch process for the hydrolysis of ligno-cellulosic biomass comprising the steps of

• A) a contacting step, comprising contacting a ligno-cellulosic feedstock of a feedstock stream, the ligno-cellulosic feedstock comprised of a ligno-cellulosic biomass having a dry content and water with at least a portion of a solvent, wherein the dry content comprises cellulose, hemicellulose, and the weight percent of the cellulose in the dry content is greater than 5 weight percent of the dry content, the solvent comprises water soluble hydrolyzed species;
• wherein at least some of the water soluble hydrolyzed species are the same as the water soluble hydrolyzed species obtainable from the hydrolysis of the cellulose in the feedstock;
• B) maintaining the contact between the feedstock of the feedstock stream and the solvent in the presence of a first catalyst composition for the hydrolysis of the cellulose, at a temperature in the range of selected from the group consisting of 20° C. to 200° C. and 20 to 95° C. for a time in the range of 5 minutes to 72 hours to create a hydrolyzed product from the biomass in the feedstock;
• wherein the contacting step (A) further comprises introducing the ligno-cellulosic feedstock into a vessel already containing at least a portion of the solvent, introducing the first catalyst composition into the vessel before, simultaneously with, or after introduction of the feedstock into the vessel, and the process further comprises step
• C) removing the hydrolyzed product from the vessel.

A continuous process for the hydrolysis of ligno-cellulosic biomass comprising the steps of

• A) a contacting step, comprising contacting a ligno-cellulosic feedstock of a feedstock stream, the ligno-cellulosic feedstock comprised of a ligno-cellulosic biomass having a dry content and water with at least a portion of a solvent, wherein the dry content comprises cellulose, hemicellulose, and the weight percent of the cellulose in the dry content is greater than 5 weight percent of the dry content, the solvent comprises water soluble hydrolyzed species;
• wherein at least some of the water soluble hydrolyzed species are the same as the water soluble hydrolyzed species obtainable from the hydrolysis of the cellulose in the feedstock;
• B) Maintaining the contact between the feedstock of the feedstock stream and the solvent in the presence of a catalyst composition for the hydrolysis of the cellulose, at a temperature in a temperature range selected from the group consisting of 20° C. to 200° C. and 20 to 95° C. for a time range in the range of 5 minutes to 72 hours to create a hydrolyzed product from the biomass in the feedstock;
• wherein the contacting step (A) further comprises introducing the ligno-cellulosic feedstock into a vessel already containing at least a portion of the solvent, introducing the catalyst composition into the vessel before, simultaneously with, or after introduction of the feedstock into the vessel, and the process further comprises step
• C) continuously removing a weight of the hydrolyzed product from the vessel.