Process for carrying out pre-hydrolysis of a biomass
AssigneeRM Materials Refratarios LTDA
InventorsDaltro Garcia Pinatti, Alvaro Guedes Soares
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Abstract
A process wherein biomass is compacted at 300 kg/m3 by a helical feeder, degassed, flooded, heated, stirred, and pre-hydrolyzed. The sugar being recovered at a first washing within the reactor with values higher than 90%. The control of the process enables one to produce cellulignin with a high specific surface, 2 m2/g (measured by BET), compared with the value of 0.4 m2/g of non-hydrolyzed biomass, maintain crystallinity of the cellulose fibers, aiming at grinding it into fine particles (f<250 mm), globulizing the lignin, exposing the cellulose to attacks by micro-organisms from cud of ruminants, fungi, bacteria or enzymes in microbiological or enzymatic fermentation.
Claims24
A biomass pre-hydrolysis process comprising the following steps:
- a) discharging of the biomass into a helical feeder;
- b) transferring the biomass from the helical feeder to a pre-hydrolysis device;
- c) starting, in the biomass pre-hydrolysis device, the operation of pressurization, which comprises the following steps:
- c.1) flooding the biomass pre-hydrolysis device with a pre-heated acidic solution;
- c.2) heating to create a pre-hydrolysate;
- and
- c.3) pressurizing;
- d) said process wherein the pre-hydrolysis is carried out simultaneously with the rotary oscillation of the biomass pre-hydrolysis device, purging of steam and controlling of temperature, pressure, acid content, time of pre-hydrolysis, and liquid/solid ratio;
- and
- e) monitoring a sugar content of the pre-hydrolysate to a value close to 10 Brix by means of a sugar meter.
A biomass pre-hydrolysis process comprising:
- feeding biomass into a reactor vessel, with the feeding of the biomass being carried out sufficiently to achieve a compacted biomass within said vessel;
- feeding an acidic solution into the vessel and into contact with the biomass in said vessel;
- heating and pressurizing the biomass and acidic solution within said vessel, and
- wherein said heating and pressurizing includes an introduction of steam into the vessel to heat the biomass and acidic solution to a processing temperature and to achieve a processing pressure within said vessel;
- subjecting said vessel to rotary oscillation during a period of introduction of steam into the vessel;
- monitoring a state of the biomass and acid solution subjected to heating and pressurization within the vessel;
- and discharging a product of cellulignin and pre-hydrolysate from said vessel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.