System for Fermentation of Biomass for the Production of Ethanol

• US 20100227369A1
• Filed: 03/03/2010
• Published: 09/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Poet Research Inc.
• Original Assignee: Poet Research Inc.
• Inventors: Narendranath, Neelakantam V., Carlson, David Charles
• Granted Patent: US 8,815,552 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 435/165
• CPC Class Codes: C12M 21/12 for producing fuels or solvents C12M21/04 takes precedence; liquid carbonaceous fuels C10L1/00, solid fuels C10L5/00
• CPC Class Codes: C12M 23/58 Reaction vessels connected in series or in parallel combinations of bioreactors with other apparatus, C12M43/00
• CPC Class Codes: C12M 43/02 Bioreactors or fermenters combined with devices for liquid fuel extraction; Biorefineries
• CPC Class Codes: C12M 45/02 by mechanical forces; Stirring; Trituration; Comminuting crushing, pulverizing, disintegrating in general B02C
• CPC Class Codes: C12M 45/04 Phase separators; Separation of non fermentable material; Fractionation
• CPC Class Codes: C12P 7/10 substrate containing cellulosic material
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 50/10 Biofuels, e.g. bio-diesel

Abstract

A biorefinery and a system for producing a fermentation product from biomass are disclosed. The biorefinery comprises a preparation system to prepare the biomass into prepared biomass; a pre-treatment system to pre-treat the prepared biomass with a dilute acid for separation into a first component from which pentose can accessed for fermentation and a second component from which hexose can be made available for fermentation; a first treatment system to treat the first component into a treated first component by removing removed components from the first component; a first fermentation system to produce a first fermentation product from the pentose; a distillation system to recover ethanol from the first fermentation product; and a treatment system to process removed components. The biomass comprises lignocellulosic material, which comprises at least one of corn cobs, corn plant husks, corn plant leaves and corn plant stalks.

Claims

1. A method for producing a fermentation product in a fermentation system from biomass that has been pre-treated and separated into a first component and a second component comprising the steps of:

supplying the first component to the fermentation system;

providing an ethanologen to the fermentation system;

maintaining the first component and ethanologen in the fermentation system at a temperature of between about 26 and about 37 degrees Celsius and at a pH of between about 4.5 and about 6.0 for a time of no less than 18 hours;

recovering the fermentation product from the fermentation system;

wherein the ethanologen is supplied to the fermentation system in a concentration of less than 150 grams of ethanologen on a dry basis per liter of first component;

wherein the biomass comprises lignocellulosic material;

wherein the lignocellulosic material comprises at least one of corn cobs, corn plant husks, corn plant leaves and corn plant stalks;

wherein the first component comprises pentose;

wherein the pentose comprises xylose;

wherein the ethanologen is capable of fermenting xylose into ethanol.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first component comprises a liquid component of the lignocellulosic material.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the second component comprises a solids component of the lignocellulosic material.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the lignocellulosic material consists essentially of corn cobs, corn plant husks, corn plant leaves and corn stalks.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the first component comprises sugar and wherein the ethanologen is supplied to the fermentation system in a concentration of about 0.01 to 1.0 gram per gram of sugar in the first component.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the first component comprises xylose.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the first component comprises xylose at about 2 to 5 percent by weight.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the ethanologen is an organism.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the biomass comprises hemi-cellulose and the fermentation product has been produced by fermentation of xylose.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the biomass comprises cellulose and the fermentation product has been produced by fermentation of glucose.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the ethanologen is a yeast.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the liquid component comprises xylose and glucose and the ethanologen comprises an organism capable of fermenting xylose into ethanol and glucose into ethanol.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the ethanologen comprises Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the liquid component comprises xylose and glucose and the ethanologen comprises an organism capable of fermenting xylose into ethanol and glucose into ethanol.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the fermentation product comprises at least 1.5 percent ethanol by volume.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the fermentation product comprises at least 2.0 percent ethanol by volume.

17. The method of claim 6 wherein the first component comprises xylose;

wherein the fermentation product comprises ethanol, and wherein at least 75 percent of the xylose has been converted into ethanol by fermentation.

18. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of treating the first component to remove inhibitors.

19. The method of claim 6 further comprising the step of treating the first component to increase the concentration of xylose.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the first component comprises xylose, further comprising the step of treating the first component to increase the concentration of xylose.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the biomass is lignocellulosic biomass and wherein the first component comprises pentose and the second component comprises cellulose and lignin.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the pentose comprises xylose.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of maintaining the first component and ethanologen in the fermentation system is for a time of no less than 24 hours.

24. A fermentation system configured to produce a fermentation product from biomass that has been pre-treated and separated into a first component and a second component comprising:

a first vessel configured to receive the first component and an ethanologen;

a second vessel configured to propagate the ethanologen for supply to the first vessel;

wherein the first vessel is configured to maintain the first component and ethanologen at a temperature of between about 31 and about 34 degrees Celsius and at a pH of between about 5.2 and about 5.8 for a time of no less than 18 hours;

wherein the biomass comprises lignocellulosic material;

wherein the lignocellulosic material comprises at least one of corn cobs, corn plant husks, corn plant leaves and corn plant stalks;

wherein the first component comprises pentose;

wherein the pentose comprises xylose;

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the first component comprises a liquid component of the lignocellulosic material.

26. The system of claim 24 wherein the lignocellulosic material consists essentially of corn cobs, corn plant husks, corn plant leaves and corn stalks.

27. The system of claim 24 wherein the ethanologen is an organism.

28. The system of claim 27 wherein the organism is capable of fermenting xylose into a fermentation product.

29. The system of claim 28 wherein the fermentation product comprises ethanol.

30. A biorefinery for producing a fermentation product from biomass comprising:

a preparation system to prepare the biomass into prepared biomass;

a pre-treatment system to pre-treat the prepared biomass with a dilute acid for separation into a first component from which pentose can accessed for fermentation and a second component from which hexose can be made available for fermentation;

a first treatment system to treat the first component into a treated first component by removing removed components from the first component;

a first fermentation system to produce a first fermentation product from the pentose by supplying an ethanologen and maintaining the first component and ethanologen at a temperature of between about 26 and about 37 degrees Celsius and at a pH of between about 4.5 and about 6.0 for a time of no less than 18 hours;

a distillation system to recover ethanol from the first fermentation product;

a treatment system to process removed components;

wherein the biomass comprises lignocellulosic material;

wherein the lignocellulosic material comprises at least one of corn cobs, corn plant husks, corn plant leaves and corn plant stalks.

31. The biorefinery of claim 30 wherein the pentose comprises xylose and the first fermentation product comprises a fermentation product produced by fermentation of xylose.

32. The biorefinery of claim 30 further comprising:

a second treatment system to treat the second component into a treated second component from which hexose can be accessed for fermentation;

a second fermentation system to produce a second fermentation product from the hexose by supplying an ethanologen to ferment the hexose;

a distillation system to recover ethanol from the second fermentation product.

33. The biorefinery of claim 30 wherein the hexose comprises glucose.

34. The method of claim 30 wherein the first component comprises a liquid component of the lignocellulosic material.

35. The method of claim 30 wherein the second component comprises a solids component of the lignocellulosic material.

36. The method of claim 30 wherein the lignocellulosic material consists essentially of corn cobs, corn plant husks, corn plant leaves and corn stalks.