Highly refined cellulosic materials combined with hydrocolloids

Abstract

The present invention comprises an improved method for refining cellulose that produces a highly refined cellulosic material in combination with a hydrocolloid. The method comprises soaking raw material from primarily parenchymal cell wall structures in an aqueous solution which need not contain an agent to modify the fiber (e.g., a mild alkalizing or alkaline agent and/or solution) using reduced temperatures and pressures, and refining the material with a plate refiner so that a waste water stream is reduced in volume. The mass is dried to produce the HRC fiber. The HRC fiber displays a water retention capacity of about 25 to at least about 56 g H₂O/g dry HRC and retains moisture under conditions that are ordinarily used to remove moisture from materials. The highly refined fiber product can also provide excellent thickening properties and can be used in a wide variety of materials, including edible materials.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION DATA [0001] This Application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 288,793, filed 6 Nov. 2002, titled “Highly refined fiber mass, process of their manufacture and products containing the fibers,” which application is incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to the manufacture of compositions from cellulose fiber material and particularly high-parenchymal cell content cellulose materials such as citrus-based or sugar beet-based cellulose materials, the fiber based product of the cellulose fiber material, and products containing the fiber based product in combination with a hydrocolloid. [0004] 2. Background of the Art [0005] Many food and agricultural byproducts contain substantial amounts of cellulose. Cellulose is known to be useful in a wide range of markets. The food industry uses cellulose as a fat replacement, a component in products such as d...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0016] The present processes include procedures (especially drying and / or rehydrating) procedures described in greater detail herein that have general applicability to the manufacture of highly refined cellulose fiber or particulate products (generically referred to as “HRC” and including both the fiber and particulate, unless otherwise limited) and the use of those products in combination with hydrocolloids to produce unique additives for other compositions. The unique additives (comprising the HRC and hydrocolloid) can be added to cosmetic compositions, food compositions, baking compositions, beverages, pharmaceuticals, diet aids, and the like. Some processes according to the present invention find particular advantages in the use of more discriminating selection of organic material (e.g., increasing the percentage of root and fruit content in the raw material to increase the percentage of parenchymal cell material as opposed to organic materials with higher proportions of sclerenchymal cell material. Raw organic material from a fruit or vegetable cell source with a substantially (at least 30%), primarily (at least 50% or at least 51%), substantively (at least 75%) or an exclusively parenchymal cell wall structure can be treated with a generally mild process to form highly absorbent microfibers. Cells from citrus fruit, carrots, grapes, tomatoes, chicory, pineapple, apples, cranberries, potatoes and sugar beets are particularly amenable to processing to generate highly refined cellulose fibers with both unique and improved properties. These exclusively parenchymal microfibers (hereinafter referred to as EPM's) have improved moisture retention and / or thickening properties that enable the fibers to provide unique benefits when combined (either in their wet form or when rehydrated from a dry form) into edible products (e.g., baked goods, liquefied foods, whipped foods, meats, meat additives or extenders (such as flour-based additives, and commercial products such as Hamburger Helper® additive products), beverages, dairy products, etc.) and in mixtures that can be used to generate edible food products (e.g., baking ingredients, dehydrated or low hydration products). The fiber materials may be provided as industrial thickeners, as in paint thickeners, stain thickeners, coating thickeners, and the like.

Problems solved by technology

Lignin is known to cause cellulose fibers to stick together, thus reducing the surface area available for any subsequent reactions.

It is believed that the presence of lignin also reduces the ability of cellulose microfibers to intertwine and entangle, thus reducing the structural integrity and / or strength of the final product.

The term “without substantial chemical change” means the fact that the cellulosic material is not intended for uniform chemical modification, such as esterification, acidification, substituent addition, massive molecular breakdown and the like.

However, these traditional processes involve the use of additional chemical treatment to available cellulose pulps, as for example, acid hydrolysis or mercerization, which chemically alter or degrade the prepared cellulose pulps.

However, beating and refining as practiced in the paper industry are relatively inefficient processes since large amounts of energy are expended to gain relatively minor amounts of fiber opening fibrillation.

In addition, the raw materials are subjected to high concentrations of sodium hydroxide.

Such a process is extremely energy-intensive in terms of the required temperatures and pressures.

Further, the process produces a waste stream regarded as hazardous due to elevated pH levels caused by the use of large amounts of sodium hydroxide.

Treatment of the waste stream adds to the cost of production and impacts the overall efficiency of this process.

Images