Systems and processes for cellulosic ethanol production

• US 7,449,313 B2
• Filed: 01/14/2008
• Issued: 11/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Wise Landfill Recycling Mining, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Wise Landfill Recycling Mining, Inc.
• Inventors: Rush, Stephen L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Weber; Jon P
• Assistant Examiner(s): Srivastava; Kailash C
• Application Number:
  US12/014,090
• Publication Number:
  US 20080102503A1
• Time in Patent Office: 302 Days
• Field of Search: 435/165
• US Class Current: 435/165
• CPC Class Codes: C10L 1/026 for compression ignition
• CPC Class Codes: C12P 7/10 substrate containing cellulosic material
• CPC Class Codes: C12P 7/649 Biodiesel, i.e. fatty acid alkyl esters
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 50/10 Biofuels, e.g. bio-diesel

Abstract

A cellulosic ethanol production process. Implementations may include providing a raw cellulose stream by mixing a waste cellulose feed and an algae cellulose feed and hydrolyzing the raw cellulose stream to form a hydrolyzed cellulose stream by reacting the raw cellulose stream with one or more fungi from the phylum Neocallimastigomycota. Implementations may include liquefying the hydrolyzed cellulose stream to form a raw sugars stream, separating xylitol from the raw sugars stream and fermenting the sugars stream to form a raw ethanol stream by reacting the sugars stream with a yeast feed in at least one fermenter. Implementations also may include separating ethanol from the raw ethanol, generating an algae stream by reacting the xylitol stream with algae in at least one algae bioreactor, and reacting the algae stream in at least one biodiesel reactor to produce the algae cellulose feed and a biodiesel stream.

Claims

1. An integrated process to produce fuel ethanol and biodiesel from cellulose comprising:

providing a raw cellulose stream to one or more containers selected from the group consisting of a vat, a bioreactor, and a tank by mixing a waste cellulose stream and an algae cellulose stream;

hydrolyzing the raw cellulose stream to form a hydrolyzed cellulose stream by reacting the raw cellulose stream with one or more fungi from the phylum Neocallimastigomycota;

liquefying the hydrolyzed cellulose stream to form a sugars stream;

separating the sugars stream to form a xylitol stream and a separated sugars stream;

fermenting the separated sugars stream to form a raw ethanol stream by reacting the separated sugars stream with a yeast feed in at least one fermenter;

separating the raw ethanol stream to form a fuel ethanol stream;

producing an algae stream by reacting the xylitol stream with algae in at least one algae bioreactor; and

reacting the algae stream in at least one biodiesel reactor to produce the algae cellulose stream and a biodiesel stream; and

recovering the fuel ethanol and the biodiesel from their respective streams.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein reacting the raw cellulose stream with one or more fungi further comprises forming a hydrolysis carbon dioxide CO₂ stream and an ethanol stream.

3. The process of claim 1, wherein liquefying the hydrolyzed cellulose stream further comprises heating the hydrolyzed cellulose stream and mixing the hydrolyzed cellulose stream with one or more enzymes.

4. The process of claim 1, wherein liquefying the hydrolyzed cellulose stream further comprises heating the hydrolyzed cellulose stream and mixing the hydrolyzed cellulose stream with one or more bacteria.

5. The process of claim 2, wherein fermenting the separated sugars stream by reacting the separated sugars stream with a yeast feed produces a fermentation CO₂ stream.

6. The process of claim 5, wherein producing the algae stream further comprises reacting the hydrolysis CO₂ stream, the fermentation CO₂ stream, and an atmospheric CO₂ stream with the xylitol stream in the at least one algae bioreactor.

7. The process of claim 1, wherein separating the raw ethanol stream includes using at least one molecular sieve.

8. The process of claim 1, wherein separating the sugars stream further comprises chromatographically separating xylitol from the sugars stream to produce the xylitol stream and the separated sugars stream.