Iogen Energy Corporation

Voith Patent Gmbh

Stephen A Rowland

Trevor Richardson

William Miller

Brian Foody

Jeffrey S Tolan

Vijay Anand

Ziyad Rahme

Patrick Foody, Sr

Chris Mallalieu

Ryan Taylor

Brian E Foody

Vijay Kumar Anand

A method for removing liquid from a slurry includes: (i) feeding the slurry into the inlet of a press; (ii) removing liquid from the slurry as the slurry advances through a deliquifying section of the press, thereby producing a pressate stream; (iii) forming a plug of material as the slurry is advanced through a plug formation section of the press; (iv) advancing the plug of material to a discharge section of the press; and (v) removing additional liquid from the plug of material by operating the press so that the pressure in the discharge section of the press is greater than the pressure of the pressate stream by at least 2 psi. The present invention also relates to a method for controlling discharge consistency from a press, without provision of discharge restrictors, by varying the pressure differential between a discharge section of the press and a pressate stream.

Method for removing liquid from a slurry

Discharging pretreated biomass from a pretreatment reactor and mixing the discharged pretreated biomass with a cooling liquid in a vessel provides a cooled slurry having a consistency that is less than about 12 wt %. Since the consistency is relatively low, the cooled slurry may be pumped to a higher elevation using standard pumping equipment. At the higher elevation, the cooled slurry may be separated into a first stream comprising a liquid component of the slurry and a second other stream comprising a solid component of the slurry (e.g., having a consistency between about 15 wt % and 40 about wt %). The solid component may be fed to an inlet of a hydrolysis reactor, while the liquid component may be fed to a cooling system that provides a cooled stream. The cooled stream may then be cycled back to the vessel.

System and method for cooling pretreated biomass

The method includes the following steps: (i) feeding a slurry into the inlet of a press; (ii) removing liquid from the slurry as the slurry advances through a deliquefying section of the press, thereby producing a pressate stream; (iii) forming a plug of material as the slurry is advanced through a plug formation section of the press; (iv) advancing the plug of material to a discharge section of the press; and (v) removing additional liquid from the plug of material by operating the press so that the pressure in the discharge section of the press is greater than the pressure of the pressate stream by at least 2 psi. There is also described a method for controlling discharge consistency from a press, without provision of discharge restrictors, by varying a pressure differential between a discharge section of the press and a pressate stream.

A process for the production of glucose from a pretreated lignocellulosic feedstock is provided. The method comprises enzymatically hydrolyzing the pretreated lignocellulosic feedstock with cellulase enzymes to produce a hydrolyzate slurry comprising glucose and unhydrolyzed cellulose and fermenting the hydrolyzate slurry in a fermentation reaction to produce a fermentation broth comprising alcohol. A process stream is obtained comprising unhydrolyzed cellulose, which is then subjected to a denaturing step, preferably comprising exposing the unhydrolyzed cellulose to elevated temperatures, thereby producing a heat-treated stream comprising the unhydrolyzed cellulose. The heat-treated stream comprising unhydrolyzed cellulose is then further hydrolyzed with cellulase enzymes to hydrolyze the cellulose to glucose.

Method for the production of alcohol from a pretreated lignocellulosic feedstock

A method is provided for hydrolyzing polysaccharides in a lignocellulosic feedstock to produce monosaccharides or pretreating a lignocellulosic feedstock, in which an aqueous slurry of the lignocellulosic feedstock is fed into a pressurized dewatering zone wherein the feedstock is partially dewatered and then is compressed into a plug. The plug is introduced into a reaction zone that operates at a pressure (P) equal to greater than about 90 psia and under suitable temperature and pH conditions to hydrolyze the polysaccharides or pretreat the feedstock. The plug provides a pressure seal between the outlet of the dewatering zone and the reaction zone. The pressure (P) of the aqueous slurry of the lignocellulosic feedstock at the inlet of the dewatering device is related to Pas follows:

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Brownsburg-Chatham, Canada

Stephen A Rowland