Integrated wood processing and sugar production

{
  "publication_number": "US9499635B2",
  "country": "US",
  "kind": "B2",
  "title": "Integrated wood processing and sugar production",
  "abstract": "Provided is a system for localizing and optimizing harvesting of woody biomass by providing a plurality of portable pretreatment units at harvesting or mill sites. The sugars derived from woody waste products can be transported to plants for processing or processing directly by plants located at mill sites to generate biofuels and other chemicals.",
  "claims": [
    "1. A method for producing sugar from woody feedstock, at one or more portable feedstock processing units, each of which is located at or near a woody feedstock provider, and the method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a woody feedstock comprising cellulose, hemicellulose, or lignocellulose; (b) processing the cellulose, hemicellulose, or lignocellulose of the woody feedstock at the one or more portable feedstock processing units, each of which is located at or near the woody feedstock provider, to produce sugar in a solution; wherein the processing comprises: (i) reducing the size of the woody feedstock to uniform 0.2 mm or smaller pieces; (ii) adding water to the woody feedstock to produce a slurry of 10-30% w/v solids; (iii) treating the slurry for no more than 20 minutes at 120° C. −180° C. to produce a first liquid fraction containing C5 sugars and a first solid fraction; (iv) removing and concentrating the first liquid fraction; (v) hydrolyzing the first liquid fraction with at least one hemicellulase enzyme; (vi) treating the first solid fraction at a temperature greater than 190° C. for greater than 5 minutes in a 1-3% acid solution to produce a mixture; (vii) neutralizing the mixture; (viii) hydrolyzing the mixture with cellulase enzymes to produce a second liquid fraction containing C6 sugars and a second solid fraction; and (ix) separating the second liquid fraction from the second solid fraction; (c) concentrating the sugar in the solution; and (d) transporting the concentrated sugar to a centralized plant for processing the concentrated sugar into biofuels or chemicals.",
    "2. The method of claim 1, wherein the woody feedstock comprises wood chips, slash, wood, bark, sawdust, paper, poplars, willows, pulp, waste, or a combination thereof.",
    "3. The method of claim 1, wherein the woody feedstock provider is a timber harvesting site or a mill.",
    "4. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing is performed at a plurality of portable feedstock processing units.",
    "5. The method of claim 4, wherein the plant for processing the concentrated sugar into biofuels or chemicals is centrally located relative to the plurality of portable feedstock processing units.",
    "6. The method of claim 1, wherein the sugar comprises glucose.",
    "7. The method of claim 1, wherein the sugar comprises xylose."
  ],
  "description_excerpt": "Processing of woody plants requires optimized pretreatment to extract and hydrolyze cellulosic and hemicellulosic material into sugars and then into other products, such as biofuels and other industrially-valuable chemicals. Just the cost of transporting woody wastes from lumber mills and wood harvesting areas to biofuel or chemical plants contributes to the cost of producing cellulosic sugars, thus reducing the value of any end products. However, constructing costly plants to pretreat and convert woody residues into products such as ethanol, butanol, or succinic acid is time consuming and risky as the mills must consistently produce large amounts of biomass and residues must be sometimes be conveyed from remote sites. With thousands of wood processing mills throughout North America, it would be advantageous to have a system whereby woody biomass can be processed inexpensively at mill sites.\n\nThe invention relates generally to a method and system for producing ethanol and more particularly to a method and system for producing ethanol using one or more feedstock processing plants located near a feedstock producing or a feedstock storage site and an ethanol producing plant.",
  "cpc": [
    "C08B 1/003",
    "C12M 21/18",
    "C12M 43/02",
    "C12M 45/02",
    "C12P 19/02",
    "C12P 19/14",
    "C13K 1/02"
  ],
  "ipc": [
    "C08B 1/00",
    "C12M 1/00",
    "C12P 19/14",
    "C12M 1/33",
    "C12M 1/40",
    "C12P 19/00",
    "C12P 19/02",
    "C12P 19/04",
    "C13K 1/02"
  ],
  "assignees": [
    "Sweetwater Energy Inc"
  ],
  "inventors": [
    "Arunas Chesonis",
    "Jerry W. Horton"
  ],
  "filing_date": "2013-10-09",
  "publication_date": "2016-11-22",
  "grant_date": "2016-11-22",
  "priority_date": "2006-10-13",
  "application_number": "US-201314050244-A",
  "family_id": "50025870",
  "cited_by_count": 5,
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