493results about "Pretreatment with water/steam" patented technology

An apparatus and process for solvent pulping of cellulose-containing biomass utilizes at least one steaming vessel, a plug screw feeder or compression screw device, at least one super-atmospheric impregnation vessel, a solvent delignification reactor capable of operating at a pressure of 350 psig or more, and a solvent containing line for introducing solvent-containing liquor at the plug screw feeder outlet or compression screw device outlet. The process and system can also include at least one series connected pressure diffuser and optionally a retention tube downstream of each pressure diffuser to provide sufficient retention time to substantially preclude re-deposition of lignin on the cellulose fibers of the biomass, a blow tank connected to the last of the pressure diffusers and retention tubes, and vessels for multistage alcohol washing. The method steams the biomass and impregnates it with solvent to produce an aqueous slurry of biomass and solvent, delignifies the particulate biomass in the slurry, removes solvent while continuing delignification of the biomass in the slurry and while substantially precluding re-deposition of lignin on the cellulose of the biomass, reduces the pressure of the slurry; and then washes the slurry.

An omnibus process of pulping and bleaching lignocellulosic materials in which a charge of a lignocellulosic material is biopulped and / or water extracted prior to pulping and bleaching. The lignocellulosic material may be mechanically pulped and bleached in the presence of an enzyme that breaks lignin-carbohydrate complexes. The aqueous extract in embodiments including a water extract step is separated into acetic acid and hemicellulose sugar aqueous solutions.

This invention relates to a process of treating a lignocellulosic material to produce bio-ethanol. The process includes the steps of: (a) exposing the lignocellulosic material to conditions including a pH not less than about 8, and steam at a first pressure, to produce a step (a) product; (b) explosively discharging the step (a) product to a second pressure less than the first pressure to produce a step (b) product; and (c) further processing the step (b) product to produce bio-ethanol and other co-products. In another embodiment, the invention relates to a conical auger fractionation column. The fractionation column includes a column body having an input and an output. A conical filter is positioned inside the column body, the filter having a larger diameter end directed toward the input and a smaller diameter end directed toward the output. A conical auger is positioned inside the conical filter, the conical auger having an outer diameter which is approximately the same as an inner diameter of the conical filter. The auger and filter are adapted to cooperate to separate cellulosic solids from a liquid stream in a process of producing bio-ethanol from a lignocellulosic material.

A process for producing high bulk cellulosic fiber exhibiting a durable elevated curl index includes: (a) concurrently heat treating and convolving cellulosic fiber pulp at elevated temperature and pressure at high consistency under conditions selected so as to preclude substantial fibrillation and attendant paper strength and fiber bonding development; and (b) recovering the pulp wherein the length weighted curl index of the treated fiber is at least about 20% higher than the length weighted curl index of the fiber prior to the heat treatment and convolving thereof. The curl imparted to the fiber persists upon treatment for 30 minutes in a laboratory disintegrator at 3000 rpm at 1% consistency at a temperature of 125° F. Moreover, the curl may be imparted to the fiber in a disk refiner at very short residence times, on the order of several seconds or less. In general, the process is carried out in the presence of saturated steam at a pressure of from about 5 to about 150 psig.

A steam explosion pulping method including: impregnating a cellulosic biomass feed material in a pressurized reactor vessel; discharging the impregnated feed material from the vessel to a high pressure compressor; elevating a pressure of the feed material in the compressor; discharging the pressurized feed material from the compressor to a conduit coupled to a blow valve; rapidly reducing pressure of the pressurized feed material as the feed material passes through the blow valve, and pulping the feed material by expansion of fluid in the feed material during the rapid pressure reduction.

The present invention relates to a process for preparing a high-yield pulp comprising a) treating a lignocellulose containing material chemically by means of an oxidising system comprising at least one non-enzymatic oxidant substantially free from ozone and chlorine dioxide and an activator at a pH from about 2 to about 6.5; and b) treating the lignocellulose containing material mechanically for a time sufficient to produce a high-yield pulp, wherein the lignocellulose containing material is chemically treated prior to and / or during any mechanical treatment stage, and wherein the lignocellulose containing material is not chemically treated at a pH from about 11.5 to about 14 between stages a) and b).

A system and method for thermomechanical refining of wood chips comprises preparing the chips for refining by exposing the chips to an environment of steam to soften the chips, compressively destructuring and dewatering the softened chips to a solids consistency above 55 percent, and diluting the destructured and dewatered chips to a consistency in the range of about 30 to 55 percent. The destructuring partially defibrates the material. This diluted material is fed to a rotating disc primary refiner wherein each of the opposed discs has an inner ring pattern of bars and grooves and an outer ring pattern of bars and grooves. The destructured and partially defibrated chips are substantially completely defibrated in the inner ring and the resulting fibers are fibrillated in the outer ring. The compressive destructuring, dewatering, and dilution can all be implemented in one integrated piece of equipment immediately upstream of the primary refiner, and the fiberizing and fibrillating are both achieved between only one set of relatively rotating discs in the primary refiner.

A multi-function process is described for the separation of cellulose fibers from the other constituents of lignocellulosic biomass such as found in trees, grasses, agricultural waste, and waste paper with application in the preparation of feedstocks for use in the manufacture of paper, plastics, ethanol, and other chemicals. This process minimizes waste disposal problems since it uses only steam, water, and oxygen at elevated temperature in the range of 180° C. to 240° C. for 1 to 10 minutes plus a small amount of chemical reagents to maintain pH in the range 8 to 13. An energy recuperation function is important to the economic viability of the process.

The present invention relates to a process for the production of xylose and dissolving pulp from xylan-containing biomass, such as hardwood. The invention is based on prehydrolysis of the xylan-containing biomass with SO2 in specified conditions, followed by chromatographic fractionation, nanofiltration or precipitation crystallization of the xylose-containing prehydrolyzate to obtain a xylose product having a xylose content of at least 55% on DS. The dissolving pulp obtained from the process can be used for example for the production of viscose.

A chip pretreatment process which comprises conveying the feed material through a compression screw device having an atmosphere of saturated steam at a pressure above about 5 psig, decompressing and discharging the compressed material from the screw device into a decompression region, feeding the decompressed material from the decompression region into a fiberizing device, such as a low intensity disc refiner, where at least about 30 percent of the fiber bundles and fibers are axially separated, without substantial fibrillation of the fibers. Preferably, the fibers are axially separated with less than about 5 percent fibrillation, and subsequently the fiberized material is refined in a high intensity disc refiner until at least about 90 percent of the fibers are fibrillated. In another form the invention combines chip fiberizing with chemical treatments, for improving the pulp property versus energy relationships.

A method and apparatus for pretreating or conditioning lignocellulose fiber containing feed material in preparation for conversion to pulp. Wood chips are pretreated under conditions of elevated temperature, pressure and humidity and subsequently compressed to cause destructuring of the fibers of the feed material. The pretreated wood chips are then converted to pulp using such methods as the ground wood pulping process or chemical digestion process.

The invention relates to a process for recovering and producing chemicals in a pulp production process where organic chemicals, such as formic acid and acetic acid, are used as cooking chemicals. The process of the invention is based on regeneration of cooking acids and formation of additional cooking acids and furfural by evaporating the cooking liquor and then separating acetic acid, formic acid, furfural and water. The separation is preferably carried out by distillation using the furfural formed in the process as a distilling aid in the distillation.

A method is provided for treating black liquor particularly derived from non-wood pulp, by heating with an alkaline earth metal oxide in a toroidal fluidised bed reactor at a temperature of above 650° C. The method may be used alone or as part of a method of converting graminaceous raw material to pulp for paper or board, said method comprising (a) digesting said raw material with a white liquor based on sodium hydroxide and further comprising calcium hydroxide in an amount effective to substantially convert silica of said raw material to calcium silicate; (b) recovering pulp and black liquor substantially free of uncombined silica; (c) heating the black liquor in a fluidized bed reactor containing calcium oxide for catalysing conversion of organic content of said black liquor to gas and for providing recovered solids including sodium values of said white liquor and calcium oxide; and regenerating said white liquor using said recovered solids. The use of the above mentioned white liquor permits treatment of wheat straw, rice straw and other high-silica materials without resulting in a black liquor that is difficult to treat.

In accordance with the present invention, lyocell products can be made with unbleached pulps resulting in products with high amounts of hemicellulose and high amounts of lignin as compared to conventional lyocell products. The lyocell products of the present invention are advantageously less expensive to produce but retain the desirable strength of conventional lyocell products.

Provided is a process for producing biomass-based product from straw hemicellulose and utilizing the components thereof thoroughly. Steam-explosion and acid-hydrolysis are combined in the pre-treatment of straw in the process, thus a higher concentration of a sugar liquid can be obtained, and furfural and acetic acid can be recovered. The hemicellulose obtained by the pre-treatment can be used directly as ferment materials for producing butanol, succinic acid, butylene glycol, lactic acid, hydrogen and firedamp, which reduces the cost of these biomass-based products. The cellulose and lignin obtained by extracting the straw with an alkaline solution can produce products, such as sodium hydroxymethyl cellulose etc. In the process, all components in the straw can be utilized thoroughly and waste and pollutant will not be produced.

The invention relates to a process system and a method for preliminary treatment of disintegrated cellulose-containing material, preferably wood chips, prior to pulp digestion. The process system and the method according to the invention make use of a process vessel intended to function both as a so-called chip bin and as a pre-impregnation vessel. The characteristics of the invention are that a sloping steaming vessel is arranged downstream of the process vessel for the purpose of separating an excess of pre-impregnation liquid from the pre-impregnated cellulose-containing material, that the sloping steaming vessel is arranged for supplying steaming vapor which preferably has been generated by flashing of extraction liquor from a pulp digester, and that the sloping steaming vessel is connected to a chip chute communicating with a condenser for connection to a system for managing foul-smelling process gases. The invention can be applied in the production of pulp which is intended for paper manufacture or other applications where cellulose fibers are used.

An organic material production system using biomass material includes: a hydrothermal decomposition apparatus (13) that causes the biomass material (11) and hot compressed water (12) 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 (17) 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 (18) that produces alcohols by fermentation using the obtained first sugar solution; a sulfuric acid decomposition device (33) that decomposes, with sulfuric acid, the hemicellulose component in hot water (30) 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 (34) that produces, using the second sugar solution containing pentose, alcohols by fermentation.

The invention provides a hydrothermal and sulfonating combined method for pretreatment and separation of lignocellulose biomass. The method comprises the steps of 1, mechanically crushing the lignocellulose biomass into a proper particle size, and then conducting preimpregnation; 2, mixing solid obtained from the step 1 with water or vapor for hydrothermal pretreatment; 3, mixing a hydrothermally pretreated and cleaned solid material obtained from the step 2 with sulfonating pretreatment liquor medicine for sulfonating pretreatment. According to the method, hydrothermal pretreatment and sulfonating pretreatment are combined, hemicelluloses can be effectively removed, lignin can be effectively removed, and then the content of substrate cellulose is increased remarkably and enzyme hydrolysis efficiency is improved greatly.

The invention discloses a method for preparing bleached chemi-mechanical pulp fore culture paper making by using cotton wood to process remainder, which belongs to the field of pulp refining for making paper. The method mainly comprises presteaming, double screw extrusion, chemical impregnation, high-consistency pulp refining by a double-screw fiberizer, adding medicament in the pulp refining process, high-consistency stay, middle-consistency pulp refining and other steps. The pulp refining process adopts single-section double-screw extrusion and single-section alkaline hydrogen peroxide impregnation, has simple process flow and compact equipment, completely adopts home equipment and saves the investment. The chemi-mechanical pulp prepared by processing cotton wood remainder through the method has the characteristics of high bulk, strength, whiteness and the like, and is suitable for pulp to be used for paper making of medium-high grade culture paper. The method achieves the cleanness and high-efficiency utilization of the remainder of the cotton wood processing factories, and is suitable for medium-small paper making enterprises for producing culture paper dependent on outsourcing goods.

The application of the invention provides an environmentally-friendly paper making and pulping technique with high yield, which comprises a raw material preprocessing stage, a physical fibrillation impregnating processing stage, an impregnating, steaming and bleaching three-section integrated pulping stage and a thickening and dewatering processing stage. An environmentally-friendly paper making and pulping system with high yield realizing the pulping technique comprises a stock cutter, a hammering and fibrillation screening dust remover, a washing dust remover, dewatering conveying equipment, a spiral steaming conveyor, a crashing, extruding and impregnating machine, a stirring and impregnating cabin, a pump pipe and a discharge pipe of a high-enriched steaming, bleaching and pulping all-in-one machine, wherein the pump pipe is connected to the high-enriched steaming bleaching pulping all-in-one machine; the discharge pipe of the high-enriched steaming, bleaching and pulping all-in-one machine is connected to a pulp cabin; the pump pipe of the pulp cabin is connected with a thickening and dewatering machine; the thickening and dewatering machine is output to the high-enriched pulping machine; the output of the high-enriched pulping machine is connected with a screening purifier and a thickening and squeezing machine in sequence. In the invention, the problems of high pollution, high energy consumption, serious shortage of paper making raw material and the like in present pulping and paper making industry can be solved fundamentally; rich plant fiber in the nature can be used, and the technical purposes of efficient bleaching, high yield, no black liquor and low energy consumption can be realized.

The present invention is directed to a method for producing products, such as fuel pellets, from lignocellulosic biomass. Lignocellulosic biomass having a moisture content of less than about 30% by weight is introduced into a reactor. A vacuum of less than about 500 torr is applied to the reactor. Steam having a temperature of between about 180° C. and about 235° C. is injected into the reactor. The biomass is maintained in the reactor between about 1 and about 12 minutes. The treated biomass having a moisture content less than about 30% by weight is removed from the reactor. Treated biomass is formed into a pellet.

The invention relates to a process for producing a dissolving pulp from a cellulosic starting material using the kraft process, comprising the step of cooking the starting material with a cooking liquor. The process according to the invention characterized in that the starting material is exposed to a steam treatment prior to cooking and that the pulp obtained by cooking is subjected to cold caustic extraction (CCE) in the course of further processing.

The present invention provides a method for producing a pretreated or hydrolyzed lignocellulosic feedstock. The method comprises feeding a lignocellulosic feedstock to a plug formation device and forming a feedstock plug therein. The plug or segments thereof are fed into an elongate chamber that comprises steam addition means for direct steam addition and a rotating shaft mounted co-axially within the chamber having one or more disintegrating elements mounted on it. Disintegrated feedstock particles are produced in the elongate chamber by the disintegrating elements. The disintegrated feedstock particles are heated by contact with the steam introduced through the steam addition means. The disintegrated feedstock particles are then treated in a reactor to produce the pretreated or hydrolyzed lignocellulosic feedstock. Further provided is a feedstock composition comprising disintegrated feedstock particles. Also provided are methods for reducing erosion on equipment by maintaining the discharge consistency from the plug formation device below 35 wt %.

Methods and systems of the present invention use cellulose-containing materials, which may include post-consumer waste garments, scrap fabric and / or various biomass materials as a raw feed material to produce isolated cellulose molecules having desirable properties that can be used in the textile and apparel industries, and in other industries. A multi-stage process is provided, in which cellulose-containing feed material is subjected to one or more pretreatment stages, followed by a pulping treatment, to isolate cellulose molecules. The isolated cellulose molecules may be used in a variety of downstream applications. In one application, isolated cellulose molecules are extruded to provide regenerated cellulose fibers having desirable (and selectable) properties that are usable in various industrial applications, including textile production.

The invention relates to the field of processing of agricultural products, in particular to short fiber food waste residue-based nano cellulose and a preparation method thereof. The preparation method comprises three parts of pretreatment of short fiber food waste residues, acid hydrolysis of food residue fibers and homogenization. The nano cellulose prepared by the method has the granularity of 50-300nm, is short bar-shaped or microsphere-shaped and can be widely used for preparing a food additive or medicament excipient, and the like. In the method, acid hydrolysis is combined with high-pressure homogenization, thus the acid consumption and hydrolysis time are reduced, the granularity uniformity of the nano cellulose is improved; and the invention is suitable for mass production.

The invention discloses a method for preparing bleached chemi-mechanical pulp by using a whole straw of a mulberry tree branch, which comprises presteaming, two sections of screw extrusion, two sections of chemical impregnation, high-consistency double-screw pulp refining, high-consistency residence, middle-consistency pulp refining and other working sections. The method is based on the raw material characteristics of the whole straw of the mulberry tree branch, gradually removes most of non-fiber components in the mulberry tree branch unfavorable for pulp refining, maintains fiber components as much as possible and reduces unfavorable factors to subsequent pulp refining and bleaching caused by the non-fiber components; chlorine containing bleaching agents are not used in the pulp refining process, so that the environment is protected; in addition, the obtained paper pulp has high yield, good physical strength and excellent optical property, and the cleaning and high-efficiency pulp refining of the whole straw of the mulberry tree branch is achieved. The method has the characteristics of simple process flow, less investment, environment-friendly pulp refining process and the like, and has better economic benefit and social benefit and wide popularization value.

Provided is a method which is capable of producing a cellulose nanofiber dispersion liquid that has a low viscosity and excellent fluidity even at a high concentration, while exhibiting excellent transparency. In a method for producing cellulose nanofibers, wherein a cellulosic starting material is oxidized in water using an oxidant in the presence of an N-oxyl compound and a compound that is selected from the group consisting of a bromide, an iodide and a mixture thereof and the thus obtained oxidized cellulose is defibrated and dispersed, pulp which is obtained by carrying out kraft cooking after a hydrolysis process is used as the cellulosic starting material.

A method for pretreating a biomass, in which a water-reactive anhydride contacts a biomass, is disclosed. The biomass is pretreated using internal heating by an exothermic reaction. Further, an apparatus for pretreating a biomass having a reaction part including an inlet part and an outlet part for the water-reactive anhydride is disclosed.