Standard Oil Company (indiana)

Michael C Price

Chien-Cheng J Shih

Thomas A Weil

Peter M Dzadzic

A process for enzymatically converting whole plant biomass containing hydrocarbon-containing laticifers to soluble sugars and recovering hydrocarbons in increased yields which comprises hydrolyzing whole plant cellulosic material in the presence of enzymes, particularly cellulase, hemicellulase, and pectinase, to produce a hydrocarbon product and recovering from the hydrolysis products a major proportion of the cellulase, hemicellulase and pectinase enzymes for reuse. At least some portion of the required make-up of cellulase, hemicellulase and pectinase enzymes is produced in a two-stage operation wherein, in the first stage, a portion of the output sugar solution is used to grow enzyme secreting microorganisms selected from the group consisting of cellulase-secreting microorganisms, hemicellulase-secreting microorganisms, pectinase-secreting microorganisms, and mixtures thereof, and in the second stage, cellulase, hemicellulase and pectinase enzyme formation is induced in the microorganism-containing culture medium by the addition of an appropriate inducer such as biomass. The cellulase, hemicellulase and pectinase enzymes are then recycled for use in the hydrolysis reaction.

Process for recovering hydrocarbons from hydrocarbon-containing biomass

A process for production and recovery of hydrocarbons from hydrocarbon-containing whole plants in a form suitable for use as chemical feedstocks or as hydrocarbon energy sources which process comprises: (a) pulverizing by grinding or chopping hydrocarbon-containing whole plants selected from the group consisting of Euphorbiaceae, Apocynaceae, Asclepiadaceae, Compositae, Cactaceae and Pinaceae families to a suitable particle size, (b) drying and preheating said particles in a reducing atmosphere under positive pressure (c) passing said particles through a thermal conversion zone containing a reducing atmosphere and with a residence time of 1 second to about 30 minutes at a temperature within the range of from about 200.degree. C. to about 1000.degree. C., (d) separately recovering the condensable vapors as liquids and the noncondensable gases in a condition suitable for use as chemical feedstocks or as hydrocarbon fuels.

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West Chicago, IL, United States of America

Michael C Price