Indian Oil Corporation Limited

Department of Biotechnology

Department of Biotechnology Ministry of Science & Technology

Alok Satlewal

Ravi Prakash Gupta

Ravindra Kumar

Sankara Sri Venkata Ramakumar

Suresh Kumar Puri

Ruchi Agrawal

Deepak Kumar Tuli

Tirath Raj

Deepak Saxena

Biswajit Basu

Surbhi Semwal

Ruchi Gaur

Manali Kapoor Kakkar

Anshu Shanker Mathur

Periyasamy Sivagurunathan

The present disclosure relates to a process for producing levulinic acid from the technical lignin. The technical lignin is rich in lignin and ash and do not have any other use and usually incinerated as a waste management strategy. During the incineration process, the cellulose also gets burnt and wasted. In the present disclosure, there is provided an economical and environmentally friendly process to produce levulinic acid from the technical lignin by using a synergistic combination of catalysts for high yields and high titer with acid recycling in a cost-effective manner.

Method for producing levulinic acid

The present invention provides an improved process for high titer lactic acid production using simultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation process using acid treated lignocellulosic biomass. The process comprises of pretreating lignocellulosic biomass comprising C5 and C6 sugars with dilute acid and superheated steam at a temperature ranging from 150-210° C.; neutralizing the pretreated lignocellulosic biomass of step (i) with NaOH pellets; and adding cellulase enzyme in the range of 1.5 to 10 FPU/g, bacteria, nutrients and buffering agent to the neutralized slurry obtained in step (ii) for hydrolysis and co-fermentation of C5 and C6 sugars at a temperature ranging from 40-45° C. for a period of 120-144 hours to obtain lactic acid. The process of the present invention requires simple nutrients and results in high titer lactic acid production within shortest duration of time.

Process for second generation lactic acid production

An integrated approach for utilizing waste products of 2G bio-refineries to fractionate the lignin of high purity. The present invention also provides a method of recycling of two waste products (2-G ethanol residue as the substrate (LRBR) and fusel oil/synthetic fusel oil (SFO) as one of the solvent) of the biorefineries in a beneficial manner to fractionate the lignin of high purity. The present method of separating high purity lignin comprises fractioning extractive-free lignin rich residue with a solvent, wherein the solvent is a mixture of SFO/Fusel oil and Formic acid. An optimized ratio of waste fusel oil and formic acid gave more than &#x3e;85% yields of high purity lignin.

Method to valorize 2G bioethanol waste streams

An advantageous process for pre-treating lignocellulosic biomass to hydrolysable polysaccharide enriched biomass with reduced amount of inhibitors of catalysis comprising steps of: providing a feedstock comprising cellulosic biomass; chopping of cellulosic biomass to have a cellulosic biomass feed material of uniform size; feeding of uniform sized feed material to a horizontal counter current extraction unit; removing excess of water from the feed material obtained from the extraction unit; soaking the extruded feed material obtained from the extraction unit; optionally removing excess of water from the feed material obtained after acid soaking; steam pre-treating the feed material obtained after removing excess of water from the acid soaked feed material; neutralizing the slurry obtained from the steam pre-treating; and optionally saccharifying the neutralized slurry.

Process for recovering higher sugar from biomass

The present invention relates to a formulation to stabilize lignocellulolytic enzyme mixture. This invention in particular relates to a formulation composed of lignocellulolytic enzyme with critical dosages of molasses either with petrochemical waste or glycerol as an additive to improve enzyme stability in a synergistic manner.

Stable lignocellulolytic enzyme composition

The present invention relates to an additive or additive composition for improved production of fermentable sugars from lignocellulosic biomass during enzymatic hydrolysis. More particularly, the present invention discloses petrochemical waste as an additive or an additive composition containing one or more ethylene glycol oligomers and one or more metal ions which are useful for improved production of fermentable sugars from lignocellulosic biomass during enzymatic hydrolysis.

Method for improved production of fermentable sugars from lignocellulosic biomass using additive and enzyme

The present invention discloses a method for producing readily available and hydrolysable polysaccharide-enriched biomass from lignocellulosic biomass while quantitatively retaining carbohydrate and producing fewer amounts of inhibitors. The method includes treating lignocellulosic biomass with an aqueous solution at elevated temperatures in a sequential step using hydrazine hydrate and sodium sulphite. In accordance with the present invention, the biomass may be further treated with a saccharification enzyme consortium to produce fermentable sugars.

Growing community of inventors

Faridabad, India

Alok Satlewal