Pretreatment of densified biomass using liquid ammonia and systems and products related thereto
First Claim
1. A method of pretreating biomass comprising:
- converting at least a majority of native cellulose Iβ
to cellulose IIII in densified biomass by pretreating the densified biomass with liquid ammonia, wherein the densified biomass is densified cellulosic biomass or densified lignocellulosic biomass and the liquid ammonia is anhydrous liquid ammonia or liquid ammonia comprising a solution of at least 80% ammonia, wherein the pretreating is performed at a temperature from about 50°
C. to about 140°
C. and at a pressure from about 14.7 to about 200 psi to generate pretreated/cellulose III-containing densified biomass, wherein total moisture content of the densified biomass and the solution is 10% or less and a weight ratio of liquid ammonia to the densified biomass is from about 0.2;
1 up to less than 2;
1.
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Abstract
A method to convert at least a majority of native cellulose Iβ to cellulose IIII in pretreated or untreated densified biomass is disclosed. The densified biomass (cellulosic or lignocellulosic) is pretreated with anhydrous liquid ammonia or liquid ammonia comprising a solution of at least 80% ammonia. The pretreating can be performed at a temperature from about 4° C. to about 140° C. and a pressure from about 14.7 to about 200 psi. In one embodiment, the densified cellulosic converting pretreatment process is followed by lignin extraction (LE). The total moisture content of the densified biomass and the solution is 30% or less and a weight ratio of liquid ammonia to the densified biomass is from about 0.3:1 to about 2:1. Various products and systems are also disclosed.
61 Citations
26 Claims
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1. A method of pretreating biomass comprising:
converting at least a majority of native cellulose Iβ
to cellulose IIII in densified biomass by pretreating the densified biomass with liquid ammonia, wherein the densified biomass is densified cellulosic biomass or densified lignocellulosic biomass and the liquid ammonia is anhydrous liquid ammonia or liquid ammonia comprising a solution of at least 80% ammonia, wherein the pretreating is performed at a temperature from about 50°
C. to about 140°
C. and at a pressure from about 14.7 to about 200 psi to generate pretreated/cellulose III-containing densified biomass, wherein total moisture content of the densified biomass and the solution is 10% or less and a weight ratio of liquid ammonia to the densified biomass is from about 0.2;
1 up to less than 2;
1.- View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method of pretreating biomass comprising:
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converting at least a majority of native cellulose Iβ
to cellulose IIII in densified biomass by pretreating the densified biomass with liquid ammonia for a period from about 15 minutes to 10 hours, wherein the densified biomass is densified cellulosic biomass or densified lignocellulosic biomass and the liquid ammonia is anhydrous liquid ammonia or liquid ammonia comprising a solution of at least 80% ammonia, wherein the pretreating is performed at a temperature from about 50°
C. to about 140°
C. and at pressure from about 14.7 to about 200 psi to generate pretreated/cellulose III-containing densified biomass, wherein total moisture content of the densified biomass and the solution is 10% or less and a weight ratio of liquid ammonia to the densified biomass is from about 0.2;
1 up to less than 2;
1; andfurther comprising an enzymatic hydrolysis step to hydrolyze the pretreated/cellulose III-containing densified biomass product, wherein said enzymatic hydrolysis step proceeds at a rate that is at least 1.5 times faster than a hydrolysis step performed using densified biomass that has not been pretreated with the liquid ammonia. - View Dependent Claims (26)
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Specification