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US 9,957,580 B2Granted
Saccharifying biomass
AssigneeXyleco, Inc.
InventorsMarshall Medoff, Thomas Craig Masterman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Biomass feedstocks (e.g., plant biomass, animal biomass, and municipal waste biomass) are processed to produce useful products, such as fuels. For example, systems are described that can convert feedstock materials to a sugar solution, which can then be fermented to produce ethanol.
Claims6
A method comprising:
- pretreating a cellulosic or lignocellulosic material with ionizing radiation at a dose between 0.25 Mrad and 10 Mrad to increase the brittleness of the cellulosic or lignocellulosic material and mechanically treating the ionized cellulosic or lignocellulosic material in the dry state to obtain fibers having a diameter in the range of 5 μm to 50 μm;
- enzymatically hydrolyzing the radiated cellulosic or lignocellulosic material to obtain a saccharification mixture comprising sugars;
- and
- concentrating the saccharification mixture comprising sugars to provide a concentrate, wherein the sugar content of the concentrate comprises from about 10 to about 70 percent by weight glucose and from about 2 to about 35 percent by weight xylose.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.