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US 8,241,873 B2Granted
Organic solvent pretreatment of biomass to enhance enzymatic saccharification
AssigneeE. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company
InventorsBruce A. Diner, Janine Fan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Biomass is pretreated using an organic solvent solution under alkaline conditions in the presence of ammonia and optionally an additional nucleophile to fragment and extract lignin without loss of hemicellulose. Pretreated biomass is further hydrolyzed with a saccharification enzyme consortium. Fermentable sugars released by saccharification may be utilized for the production of target chemicals by fermentation.
Claims17
A method for producing carbohydrate-enriched biomass with high retention of hemicellulose comprising:
- (a) providing lignocellulosic biomass comprising lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose;
- (b) suspending the biomass of (a) in an organic solvent solution comprising water, ammonia in an amount of about 2% to about 20% relative to weight of dry biomass and one or more nucleophile, whereby a biomass-solvent suspension is formed under alkaline conditions;
- (c) heating the biomass-solvent suspension to a temperature of about 100-220° C. for about 5 minutes to about 5 hours whereby lignin is fragmented and is dissolved in the suspension;
- and
- (d) filtering free liquid under pressure after heating the suspension in (c) whereby the dissolved lignin is removed and whereby carbohydrate-enriched biomass with high retention of hemicellulose is produced.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.