Biomass pretreatment
AssigneesAlliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, E. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company
InventorsSusan Marie Hennessey, Julie Friend, Richard T. Elander, Melvin P. Tucker, III
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method is provided for producing an improved pretreated biomass product for use in saccharification followed by fermentation to produce a target chemical that includes removal of saccharification and or fermentation inhibitors from the pretreated biomass product. Specifically, the pretreated biomass product derived from using the present method has fewer inhibitors of saccharification and/or fermentation without a loss in sugar content.
Claims23
A method for producing saccharification hydrolysate from biomass comprising:
- a) providing biomass;
- b) pretreating said biomass by contacting said biomass under suitable conditions with an aqueous solution comprising ammonia to form a biomass-aqueous ammonia mixture, wherein the ammonia is present at a concentration at least sufficient to maintain alkaline pH of the biomass-aqueous ammonia mixture but wherein said ammonia is present at 12 weight percent or less relative to dry weight of biomass, and further wherein the dry weight of biomass is at a solids concentration of 15 weight percent or more relative to the weight of the biomass-aqueous ammonia mixture whereby a pretreated biomass solids product and a biomass pretreatment liquor comprising one or more saccharification or fermentation inhibitor compounds is formed;
- c) removing said biomass pretreatment liquor;
- and
- d) saccharifying the pretreated biomass solids product of step (b) to form saccharification hydrolysate containing fermentable sugars.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.