Saccharifying cellulose
First Claim
1. A method for the preparation of one or more alcohols comprising the steps of:
- incubating biomass cellulose or waste cellulose with an ionic liquid (IL) to form a solution;
precipitating amorphous cellulose and/or cellulose of reduced crystallinity by admixture with an anti-solvent;
adding cellulases to the cellulose precipitate under conditions which promote the hydrolysis of cellulose to sugars; and
converting the sugars to one or more alcohols.
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Abstract
Dissolution, partial dissolution or softening of cellulose in an ionic liquid (IL) and its subsequent contact with anti-solvent produces regenerated cellulose more amorphous in structure than native cellulose, which can be separated from the IL/anti-solvent mixture by mechanical means such as simple filtration or centrifugation. This altered morphology of IL-treated cellulose allows a greater number of sites for enzyme adsorption with a subsequent enhancement of its saccharification. The IL-treated cellulose exhibits significantly improved hydrolysis kinetics with optically transparent solutions formed after about two hours of reaction. This provides an opportunity for separation of products from the catalyst (enzyme) easing enzyme recovery. With an appropriate selection of enzymes, initial hydrolysis rates for IL-treated cellulose were up to two orders of magnitude greater than those of untreated cellulose. Due to the non-volatility of the IL, anti-solvent can be easily stripped from the IL/anti-solvent mixture for recovery and recycle of both the ionic liquid and anti-solvent.
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Citations
28 Claims
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1. A method for the preparation of one or more alcohols comprising the steps of:
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incubating biomass cellulose or waste cellulose with an ionic liquid (IL) to form a solution; precipitating amorphous cellulose and/or cellulose of reduced crystallinity by admixture with an anti-solvent; adding cellulases to the cellulose precipitate under conditions which promote the hydrolysis of cellulose to sugars; and converting the sugars to one or more alcohols. - 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, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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Specification