Kimura Chemical Plants Co., Ltd.

B Food Science Co., Ltd.

Hirofumi Ikeda

Tsutomu Arai

Satoshi Makishima

Yoshihiko Amano

Nobuaki Sato

Yousuke Yamakawa

Provided is a method for industrially mass-producing a modified xylopolysaccharide from biomass. The biomass used as a raw material includes xylan in plant cell walls, having at least one kind of substituents selected from acetyl, feruloyl arabinofuranosyl and coumaroyl arabinofuranosyl groups in the side chains of xylan. A passage controlling mechanism is internally arranged to generate plug-flow onto a slurry containing the biomass at a solid content in 10 mass % to 30 mass %. The hydrothermal treatment is performed under the controlled conditions: at a temperature of 160&#xb0; C. or more, at a pressure equal to or higher than the saturated water vapor pressure at said temperature, and with a reaction severity Rranging from 3000 to 7000. A modified xylopolysaccharide is obtained as preserving the substituents in the side chains of xylan by performing a continuous hydrothermal treatment in a cylindrical plug-flow reactor.

Growing community of inventors

Hyogo, Japan

Hirofumi Ikeda