Biomass pretreatment
First Claim
1. A method for treating a lignocellulosic biomass comprising the steps of:
- incubating a lignocellulosic biomass comprising lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose in an ionic liquid (IL) for a sufficient time and temperature to swell the cellulose and hemicellulose by without dissolution of the biomass in the IL;
washing the IL-incubated biomass comprising lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose with a liquid non-solvent for cellulose that is miscible with water and the IL; and
contacting said swelled washed biomass comprising lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose with an aqueous buffer comprising enzymes capable of hydrolyzing both cellulose and hemicellulose to produce polysaccharides, and converting said polysaccharides to hexose and pentose sugars.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method for lignocellulose conversion to sugar with improvements in yield and rate of sugar production has been developed by using ionic liquid pretreatment. This new pretreatment strategy substantially improves the efficiency (in terms of yield and reaction rates) of saccharification of lignocellulosic biomass. Cellulose and hemicellulose, when hydrolyzed into their sugars, can be converted into ethanol fuel through well established fermentation technologies. These sugars also form the feedstocks for production of variety of chemicals and polymers. The complex structure of biomass requires proper pretreatment to enable efficient saccharification of cellulose and hemicellulose components to their constituent sugars. Current pretreatment approaches suffer from slow reaction rates of cellulose hydrolysis (by using the enzyme cellulase) and low yields.
75 Citations
30 Claims
-
1. A method for treating a lignocellulosic biomass comprising the steps of:
- incubating a lignocellulosic biomass comprising lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose in an ionic liquid (IL) for a sufficient time and temperature to swell the cellulose and hemicellulose by without dissolution of the biomass in the IL;
washing the IL-incubated biomass comprising lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose with a liquid non-solvent for cellulose that is miscible with water and the IL; and
contacting said swelled washed biomass comprising lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose with an aqueous buffer comprising enzymes capable of hydrolyzing both cellulose and hemicellulose to produce polysaccharides, and converting said polysaccharides to hexose and pentose sugars. - 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, 28, 29, 30)
- incubating a lignocellulosic biomass comprising lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose in an ionic liquid (IL) for a sufficient time and temperature to swell the cellulose and hemicellulose by without dissolution of the biomass in the IL;
-
25. A method for disruption of the structure of a lignocellulosic biomass which comprises lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose and treating the disrupted biomass, comprising the steps of:
-
incubating the biomass in an ionic liquid (IL) for a sufficient time and temperature to swell the cellulose and hemicellulose without dissolution of the biomass in the IL;
washing the swelled IL-incubated lignocellulosic biomass with a liquid non-solvent for cellulose that is miscible with water and the IL; andtreating the incubated and washed lignocellulosic biomass with chemical or biochemical reagents to effect the conversion of the swollen biomass to useful chemicals. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27)
-
Specification