Manufacture of alcohol from cellulosic materials using plural ferments

• US 3,990,944 A
• Filed: 09/08/1975
• Issued: 11/09/1976
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/1974
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: BIO Research Center Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: BIO Research Center Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Suzuki, Shuzo, Takagi, Motoyoshi, Gauss, William Frederick
• Primary Examiner(s): Monacell, A. Louis
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wiseman, Thomas G.
• Application Number:
  US05/610,731
• Time in Patent Office: 428 Days
• Field of Search: 195/33, 195/111, 195/115, 195/13, 195/31 R, 195/37, 195/82, 195/81, 210/11, 210/2, 210/3, 426/14, 426/11, 426/13, 426/9
• US Class Current: 435/165
• CPC Class Codes: C12P 7/10 substrate containing cellulosic material
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 50/10 Biofuels, e.g. bio-diesel
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 435/942 Saccharomyces cerevisiae
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 435/945 Trichoderma

Abstract

Alcohol is manufactured from cellulosic materials by a one-step process involving the simultaneous reaction of a cellulosic material, a cellulase and an alcohol-producing microorganism.

Claims

1. In the manufacture of alcohol from a cellulosic material, wherein the cellulosic material is enzymatically saccharified to glucose by a separately prepared cellulase and the glucose is fermented in the presence of an alcohol-producing microorganism to obtain alcohol, the improvement which comprises:

simultaneously reacting under anaerobic conditions said cellulosic material, said separately prepared cellulase and said alcohol-producing microorganism, whereby greater yields of alcohol are obtained.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein the reaction is carried out at a temperature of 25°

to 35°

C.

3. The process of claim 2, wherein the cellulase is derived from Trichoderma viride and the alcohol-producing microorganism is Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

4. The process of claim 1, wherein the cellulase is derived from the cultivation of a cellulolytic microorganism in an aqueous nutrient medium in the presence of a cellulosic material and is used in the form of the entire aqueous culture broth obtained in such cultivation or an aliquot thereof without separation of any component.