Methods of producing compounds from plant material

Abstract

The invention includes methods of processing plant material by adding water to form a mixture, heating the mixture, and separating a liquid component from a solid-comprising component. At least one of the liquid component and the solid-comprising component undergoes additional processing. Processing of the solid-comprising component produces oils, and processing of the liquid component produces one or more of glycerol, ethylene glycol, lactic acid and propylene glycol. The invention includes a process of forming glycerol, ethylene glycol, lactic acid and propylene glycol from plant matter by adding water, heating and filtering the plant matter. The filtrate containing starch, starch fragments, hemicellulose and fragments of hemicellulose is treated to form linear poly-alcohols which are then cleaved to produce one or more of glycerol, ethylene glycol, lactic acid and propylene glycol. The invention also includes a method of producing free and/or complexed sterols and stanols from plant material.

Description

[0001] The invention was made with Government support under Contract DE-FC36-00G10596, A000, awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The Government has certain rights in the invention.TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] The present invention pertains to methods of processing plant material and methods of producing compounds from plant material. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Industrial processing of corn material and other plant material currently produces primarily starch with an accompanying large volume of fiber byproduct. Despite the presence of useful components within the fiber byproduct, most of the fiber byproduct is utilized only as a low value component in livestock feed. The usefulness of the plant fiber byproduct is currently limited by a lack of developed methods for processing the plant fiber material to produce the useful compounds contained therein. [0004] It would be desirable to develop methods of producing useful compounds from plant materials. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0005] In one aspect, the invention encompasses a method of processing plant material. Depending upon the initial water content, an amount of water can be added to the plant material to form a mixture. The mixture is separated into a liquid component and a solid-containing component. At least one of the liquid component and the solid-containing component undergoes additional processing. Processing of the solid component produces oils, and processing of the liquid component produces one or more of ethanol, glycerol, ethylene glycol propylene glycol and lactic acid.

[0006] In one aspect, the invention encompasses a process of forming one or more of glycerol, ethylene glycol, lactic acid and propylene glycol from plant matter. Water can be added to plant matter as needed to form a mixture. The mixture is heated and filtered and the filtrate is retained. The filtrate contains hemicellulose, fragments of hemicellulose and starch. At least some of the hemicellulose and fragments of the hemicellulose are converted to diols, linear polyalcohols and / or lactic acid. At least some of the linear polyalcohols are cleaved to produce one or more of glycerol, ethylene glycol, propylene glycol and lactic acid.

[0007] In one aspect, the invention encompasses a method of recovering sterols. A material containing plant fiber can be mixed with water to form a mixture. The mixture is heated and filtered to produce a filtrate and a solid-containing portion. The solid-containing portion is treated with one or more solvents to extract a material containing one or more free or complexed sterols, stanols or triglycerides.

Problems solved by technology

The usefulness of the plant fiber byproduct is currently limited by a lack of developed methods for processing the plant fiber material to produce the useful compounds contained therein.

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