Integrated process for producing cellulosic pulp and polyols stream

Abstract

It is disclosed an integrated process for producing at least a cellulosic pulp comprising cellulose in the form of fibers and a polyols stream from a ligno-cellulosic feedstock comprising cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. The process comprises the steps of: a) Treating the ligno-cellulosic feedstock to produce the cellulosic pulp and at least a liquid sugar stream comprising water and monomeric sugars derived from the hemicellulose of the ligno-cellulosic feedstock; b) Catalytically converting the monomeric sugars of the liquid sugar stream to a polyols mixture, comprising primary polyols and secondary polyols; c) Separating at least a portion of the polyols mixture into at least the polyols stream and a residual stream, wherein the polyols stream comprises the majority by weight of the primary polyols and the residual stream comprises the majority by weight of the secondary polyols; d) Recovering a first thermal energy from the residual stream in a first recovery unit.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.