Organic solvent pretreatment of biomass to enhance enzymatic saccharification

• Main Authors: FAN JANINE, DINER BRUCE A
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 05.03.2013
• Subjects: APPARATUS THEREFOR; BEER; BIOCHEMISTRY; CHEMISTRY; DERIVATIVES THEREOF; ENZYMOLOGY; FERMENTATION OR ENZYME-USING PROCESSES TO SYNTHESISE A DESIREDCHEMICAL COMPOUND OR COMPOSITION OR TO SEPARATE OPTICAL ISOMERSFROM A RACEMIC MIXTURE; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; METALLURGY; MICROBIOLOGY; MUTATION OR GENETIC ENGINEERING; NUCLEIC ACIDS; NUCLEOSIDES; NUCLEOTIDES; ORGANIC CHEMISTRY; PAPER-MAKING; PRODUCTION OF CELLULOSE; PRODUCTION OF CELLULOSE BY REMOVING NON-CELLULOSE SUBSTANCESFROM CELLULOSE-CONTAINING MATERIALS; REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGYGENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION; REGENERATION OF PULPING LIQUORS; SACCHARIDES, OTHER THAN SUCROSE, OBTAINED FROM NATURAL SOURCESOR BY HYDROLYSIS OF NATURALLY OCCURRING DI-, OLIGO- ORPOLYSACCHARIDES; SPIRITS; SUGAR INDUSTRY; SUGARS; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINSTCLIMATE CHANGE; TEXTILES; VINEGAR; WINE

Biomass is pretreated using an organic solvent solution under alkaline conditions in the presence of one or more alkylamine and optionally one or more additional nucleophile to fragment and extract lignin. Pretreated biomass is further hydrolyzed with a saccharification enzyme consortium. Fermentable sugars released by saccharification may be utilized for the production of target chemicals by fermentation.