Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Mechatronics Systems, Ltd.

Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Environmental Solutions, Ltd.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Limited

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

Incorporated Administrative Agency National Agriculture and Food Research Organization

Minoru Genta

Seiichi Terakura

Ryosuke Uehara

Hideo Suzuki

Seiji Kobayashi

Kinya Fujita

Gaku Kondo

Michio Nishiyama

Yoshitaka Kimura

Yoshio Seiki

Setsuo Omoto

Wataru Matsubara

Yoshio Kuromi

Noriyuki Yamada

Yasushi Kageyama

Katsuichi Saito

Naoto Hashimoto

Yasuhiro Hasa

Tsuyoshi Sakaki

An organic material production system includes: a pretreatment device () that pulverizes a biomass material (); a hydrothermal decomposition apparatus () that hydrothermally decomposes a pulverized biomass () by causing it to countercurrently contact with hot compressed water (), elutes lignin components and hemicellulose components into the hot compressed water (), and separates the lignin components and the hemicellulose components from a biomass solid residue; a first enzymatic hydrolysis device (-) that treats cellulose in a biomass solid residue (), discharged from the hydrothermal decomposition apparatus, with an enzyme () to enzymatically hydrolyze it to a sugar solution containing hexose; a fermenter () that produces ethanol by fermentation using a sugar solution () obtained by the first enzymatic hydrolysis device (-); and a refinerthat refines an alcohol fermentation liquid (), so as to separate it into ethanol () and a residue ().

Organic material production system using biomass material and method

This biomass treatment system includes: a hydrothermal decomposition section for decomposing the cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin contained in a biomass as a raw material under high-temperature and high-pressure conditions in a main section, namely a tank having a gas-liquid interface, and thus removing a lignin component and a hemicellulose component from the biomass; a discharge section for discharging a biomass solid (a component insoluble in hot-water) obtained by the decomposition; a slurrying tank which is connected to the discharge section and in which the discharged biomass solid is slurried in water fed thereinto to form a biomass slurry; and a solid-liquid separation apparatus including both a settling tank which is provided on a discharge line for discharging the biomass slurry and in which the biomass slurry is settled and a scooping-up and conveying means for scooping up the biomass solid deposited at the bottom of the settling tank and separating the solid biomass component from water.

Biomass treatment system

A raw-material supply device for supplying a biomass raw material under pressure, wherein the device is provided with: a screw body, provided inside a screw feeder and adapted for compressing, rotating, and transporting the powdered biomass raw material using a motor from a normal-pressure feed section for the fed biomass raw material to a high-pressure discharge section; and a pressing plug provided on the tip section side of the screw body, the pressing plug having a plug tip for maintaining a high-temperature/high-pressure field against the discharge force of compressed consolidated biomass. The interior of the screw feeder comprises a raw-material feed region for feeding the biomass raw material in the raw-material transport direction, a raw-material compression region for compressing the biomass raw material, a raw-material consolidation region for consolidating the biomass raw material in the form of a cork, and a material seal section for maintaining the high-pressure field using the consolidated biomass.

Raw-material supply device and biomass separation device

Provided is a biomass hydrothermal decomposition system which includes: a biomass supply unit that supplies a biomass raw material; hydrothermally decomposing the biomass raw material using pressurized hot water; a hydrothermal decomposition unit that dissolves lignin components and hemicellulose components in the pressurized hot water; a biomass solid fraction discharge unit that discharges a biomass solid fraction from the hydrothermal decomposition unit; an enzymatic liquefaction tank that is in connection with the biomass solid fraction discharge unit, and in which the discharged biomass solid fraction is introduced, and an enzyme is supplied to the biomass solid fraction to liquefy the biomass solid fraction; and a discharge unit that discharges the liquefied biomass solid fraction.

Saccharide solution production system, saccharide solution production method using biomass raw material, and alcohol production method using biomass raw material

A biomass hydrothermal decomposition apparatus that feeds a solid biomass materialfrom one side of an apparatus body, feeds pressurized hot waterfrom the other side, to hydrothermally decompose the biomass materialwhile bringing the biomass materialinto counter contact with the pressurized hot water, dissolves hot-water soluble fractions in hot water, discharges the pressurized hot water to outside from the one side of the apparatus bodyas a hot-water effluent, and discharges a biomass solidto the outside from the other side. The biomass hydrothermal decomposition apparatus includes: an internal-temperature cooling unit that rapidly drops a temperature after performing hydrothermal decomposition for a certain period of time; temperature measuring units Tto Tthat measure an internal temperature; and a controllerthat controls an internal temperature to be maintained at a predetermined cooling temperature by the internal-temperature cooling unit based on temperature measurement results obtained by the temperature measuring units Tto T.

Biomass hydrothermal decomposition apparatus, temperature control method thereof, and organic raw material production system using biomass material

A saccharide-solution producing apparatusA according to the present invention is a saccharide-solution producing apparatus for producing a saccharide solutionderived from a carbohydrate-based material, and includes a saccharide-solution controlling unitA that controls the saccharide solution derived from the carbohydrate-based material, a cellulosic biomass saccharifying unitthat saccharifies hydrothermally treated biomass obtained by hydrothermally decomposing a cellulosic biomass materialthat contains a lignin component and a hemicellulose component, and produces a diluted saccharide solution, and a diluted-saccharide-solution supply pipe Lthat mixes the diluted saccharide solutionproduced by the cellulosic biomass saccharifying unitinto the saccharide-solution controlling unitA. With this configuration, it is possible to improve production efficiency of the saccharide solutionand to realize cost reduction.

Saccharide-solution producing apparatus, fermentation system, saccharide-solution producing method, and fermentation method

To include a hydrothermal decomposition unit that transports a fed biomass material from one side (a lower side) to the other side (an upper side) by a screwin an apparatus body, feeds pressurized hot water, hydrothermally decomposes the biomass material, transfers hot-water soluble fractions into a hot-water effluent and separates a lignin component and a hemicellulose component from the biomass material, and also to include a biomass discharging unit. Further, a scraping unit is provided at an end of a flight of the screw positioned within an installation area of the solid-liquid separator.

Biomass decomposition apparatus and method thereof, and sugar-solution production system using biomass material

A biomass processing system includes: a hydrolysis processing unit that decomposes, under a high-temperature/high-pressure condition, biomass feedstock in a processing tank having a gas-liquid interface, and removes a lignin component and a hemicellulose component; a biomass solid content discharge unit that discharges a biomass solid contentwhich is a hot water insoluble element; a slurrying vessel that subjects the discharged biomass solid content to slurrying; and a hot water discharge liquid introducing line Lthat introduces, into the slurrying vessel, a hot water discharge liquidincluding a biomass hot-water soluble element.

Biomass processing system, saccharide solution production method using biomass feedstock, alcohol production method

A biomass hydrothermal decomposition apparatus includes, a biomass feeder () that feeds biomass material () under normal pressure to under increased pressure, a hydrothermal decomposition device (A) that allows the fed biomass material () to be gradually moved inside a gradient device main body () from a lower end thereof with a conveyor screw (), and also allows hot compressed water () to be fed from an other end of a feed section () for the biomass material into the main body (), so as to cause the biomass material () and the hot compressed water () to countercurrently contact with each other and undergo hydrothermal decomposition, and that transfers a lignin component and a hemicellulose component into the hot compressed water, so as to separate the lignin component and the hemicellulose component from the biomass material (); and a biomass discharger () that discharges, from the upper end of the device main body (), a biomass solid residue () under increased pressure to an under normal pressure.

Biomass hydrothermal decomposition apparatus and method

A biomass hydrothermal decomposition apparatus that feeds a solid biomass materialfrom one side of an apparatus body, feeds hot waterfrom the other side, to hydrothermally decompose the biomass materialwhile bringing the biomass materialinto counter contact with the hot water, dissolves hot-water soluble fractions in hot water, discharges the hot water to outside from the one side of the apparatus bodyas a hot-water effluent, and discharges a biomass solid (a hot water insoluble)to outside from the other side. The biomass hydrothermal decomposition apparatus includes an effective reaction region A formed from the other side to the one side of the apparatus body, in which a feeding temperature of the hot water(for example, 200&#xb0; C.) is maintained for a predetermined period of time to cause hydrothermal decomposition, and a temperature drop region B in which a temperature is rapidly dropped to a temperature (for example, 140&#xb0; C.) at which the hot-water soluble fractions are not excessively decomposed (for example, from 200&#xb0; C. to 140&#xb0; C.), immediately after it is out of the effective reaction region A.

An organic material production system using biomass material includes: a hydrothermal decomposition apparatus that causes the biomass material and hot compressed water to countercurrently contact with each other and undergo hydrothermal decomposition, so as to separate the lignin component and the hemicellulose component from a biomass solid residue; a cellulose enzymatic saccharification device that treats, cellulose in the biomass solid residue, so as to enzymatically saccharify the cellulose to a first sugar solution containing hexose; an alcohol fermenter that produces alcohols by fermentation using the obtained first sugar solution; a sulfuric acid decomposition device that decomposes the hemicellulose component in hot water discharged from the hydrothermal decomposition apparatus, which contains the eluted lignin component and the eluted hemicellulose component, so as to decompose the hemicellulose component to a second sugar solution containing pentose; and a second alcohol fermenter that produces, using the second sugar solution containing pentose, alcohols by fermentation.

An organic material production system using biomass material includes: a hydrothermal decomposition apparatus () that causes the biomass material () and hot compressed water () to countercurrently contact with each other and undergo hydrothermal decomposition, and that transfers a lignin component and a hemicellulose component into the hot compressed water, so as to separate the lignin component and the hemicellulose component from a biomass solid residue; a cellulose enzymatic saccharification device () that treats, with an enzyme, cellulose in the biomass solid residue, so as to enzymatically saccharify the cellulose to a first sugar solution containing hexose; an alcohol fermenter () that produces alcohols by fermentation using the obtained first sugar solution; a sulfuric acid decomposition device () that decomposes, with sulfuric acid, the hemicellulose component in hot water () discharged from the hydrothermal decomposition apparatus, which contains the eluted lignin component and the eluted hemicellulose component, so as to decompose the hemicellulose component to a second sugar solution containing pentose; and a second alcohol fermenter () that produces, using the second sugar solution containing pentose, alcohols by fermentation.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Minoru Genta