US 8,618,341 B2 · Process of producing liquid fuel from cellulosic biomass

Abstract

A liquid fuel production process from cellulosic biomass comprises the following steps: (1) providing a mixture of cellulose and water; (2) subjecting the obtained mixture to hydrolysis and catalytic hydrogenation under the presence of acid to obtain mono-sugar alcohol and optional solid material lignin, or subjecting the obtained mixture to hydrolysis to obtain monosaccharide; (3) esterifying the obtained mono-sugar with C2-C5 organic acid to obtain a liquid fuel II, or subjecting the obtained mono-sugar alcohol or monosaccharide to dehydration/hydrogenation to obtain an organic liquid fuel I consisting of alkanes. This process avoids the loss of organic carbon atoms during fermentation, and the sugar derived from cellulosic biomass can be converted to organic carbon in the liquid fuel. The lignin produced by the process can be used for preparing aromatics.

Claims29

Dependent claims

A highly effective process of producing liquid fuel from a cellulosic biomass, comprising:

the first step:
providing a mixture of cellulosic biomass and water, wherein the amount of the cellulosic biomass in water is 1-60 w.t. %, and wherein the cellulosic biomass comprises cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin;
the second step:
carrying out step (a) as follows:
(a) the mixture obtained in the first step is catalytically hydrogenated and hydrolyzed under acidic conditions to produce monosaccharide alcohols, and lignin;
the third step:
the monosaccharide alcohols obtained in the second step are subjected to one of the following reactions (i) and (ii):
(i) the monosaccharide alcohols obtained in (a) of the second step are esterified with a C2-C5 organic acid to produce a liquid fuel II which is an esterification product of the monosaccharide alcohols;
and
(ii) the monosaccharide alcohols obtained in (a) of the second step are subjected to dehydroxylation-polymerization-hydrogenation to produce a liquid fuel I which is an organic product of alkanes.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Process of producing liquid fuel from cellulosic biomass

Life of this patent

Process of producing liquid fuel from cellulosic biomass

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims29