Fine fibrous cellulosic material and process for producing the same

Abstract

[Problem] To provide a fine fibrous cellulosic material capable of producing a saccharide in a high yield by hydrolysis; to provide a process for producing the fine fibrous cellulosic material from a cellulosic material; and to provide a process for producing the saccharide using the fine fibrous cellulosic material.[Means for Solving Problems] The present invention is the fine fibrous cellulosic material containing cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, which the fine fibrous cellulosic material has a width of 1 μm or less and a length of 5,000 μm or less and is used for glycation reaction by hydrolysis.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD[0001]The present invention relates to: fine fibrous cellulosic materials; processes for producing fine fibrous cellulosic materials; and processes for producing saccharides.BACKGROUND ART[0002]The principal chemical constituents of plant bodies such as wood and vegetation are cellulosic materials such as cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Of the cellulosic materials, cellulose and hemicellulose are high-molecular materials in which saccharides are bound in a straight- or branched-chain shape.[0003]Such cellulosic materials are known to be converted into saccharides by hydrolysis. Such hydrolysis methods include an acid hydrolysis method and an enzymatic hydrolysis method.[0004]However, the efficient hydrolysis of a cellulosic material is not easy.[0005]For example, in hydrolysis using acid, although a reaction proceeds in an extremely short time on the minute time scale, reaction control is difficult due to occurrence of heat generation. Even if the reaction contro...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0034]In the fine fibrous cellulosic material of the present invention, a cellulosic material made to have a width of 1 μm or less and a length of 5,000 μm or less results in improvement in hydrolysis (glycation reaction) rate and improvement in yield of a saccharine to be obtained.

[0035]The reason why the yield of a saccharine is improved as described above is unclear but is likely to be that the fine fibrous cellulosic material made to have a predetermined width, length or aspect ratio (hereinafter generally referred to as “size”) results in the increase in surface area and the facilitation of adhesion of an acid or an enzyme to the fine fibrous cellulosic material as well as in the increase in the number of reaction points of an enzyme or an acid which can be hydrolyzed. However, its causes are not limited thereto.

[0036]An aspect ratio as described herein refers to a ration between a long side (length) and a short side (width).

[0037]The fine fibrous cellulosic material having the aforementioned size allows the sufficient undoing of the entanglement of lignin with cellulose and hemicellulose.

[0038]Accordingly, the hydrolysis of such a fine fibrous cellulosic material promotes the hydrolysis to obtain a saccharide in a high yield.

[0040]In this case, a saccharide can be inexpensively obtained since a cellulosic material can be sufficiently hydrolyzed even with a comparatively small amount of enzyme.

Problems solved by technology

However, in the above-mentioned methods described in Patent Documents 1-5, although cellulosic materials can be pulverized, the entanglement of lignin with cellulose and hemicellulose cannot be sufficiently undone.

Accordingly, even if the hydrolysis of cellulosic materials is performed, saccharides cannot be obtained in a sufficient yield by the above-mentioned methods described in Patent Documents 1-5.

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