Process of increasing the digestability of cellulosic material using nitric acid
OwnerJames W. Jelksinventor
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Abstract
A process of treating cellulosic plant matter to increase the digestability thereof by animals, in which finely divided plant matter, such as sawdust, rice hulls, bagasse, wheat straw, or the like, is mixed with water and nitric acid or a combination of water, nitric acid and a nonoxidizing acid, such as sulfuric, phosphoric, hydrochloric or acetic, to produce a mixture of about 20% water, 1/4 to 1% oxygen based on the oven dried weight of organic material, the oxygen being released from the nitric acid, and a pH of 0.5 to 3.5, and cooking the mixture in a pressurized vessel at about 125 psig for 30 to 60 minutes. The cooked product may then be neutralized to raise the pH to a desired level for animal feed.
Claims15
A process of treating cellulosic plant material to increase the digestability thereof by animals comprising:
- chopping the cellulosic plant material into particles;
- mixing the chopped cellulose material with water to thoroughly wet the same;
- mixing nitric acid with the wet cellulosic material to reduce the pH of the mixture to 0.5 to 3.5;
- and
- cooking the mixture at about 100 to 125 psig steam pressure for about 30 to 60 minutes to break lignin cellulose bonds and to convert at least a portion of the cellulose for use as a digestible material suitable as animal feed.
A process of treating cellulosic plant material to increase the digestability thereof by animals, comprising:
- 1. chopping the cellulosic plant material into particles;
- 2. mixing the chopped cellulose plant material with water and nitric acid, the total water content of the mixture being about 25% of the dry weight of said plant material;
- 3. cooking the mixture at about 100 to 125 psig at a temperature of about 168.degree. to 178.degree. C for about 30 to 60 minutes;
- 4. conducting a yeast growth test of the processed material to obtain an indication of digestability;
- 5. repeating steps (1) through (4) while varying the amount of nitric acid to ascertain the concentration which produces the maximum yeast growth in the processed material;
- 6. determining the pH of the mixture of step (2) which produces the maximum yeast growth as determined in step (5);
- 7. repeating steps (1through (3) utilizing the amount of nitric acid which produces the maximum yeast growth as determined by step (5) and adding to step (2) sufficient nontoxic nonoxidizing acid to lower the pH of the mixture before cooking to about 1 to 3.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.