Processes of treating grain (e.g., corn), involving milling the grain to produce milled grain wherein the grain germ remains intact in the milled grain, and producing a mixture by mixing the milled grain with water and at least one enzyme selected from the group consisting of protease, alpha amylase, glucoamylase, cell wall degrading enzyme, and mixtures thereof, wherein the pH of the mixture is optionally adjusted to a pH of about 3.5 to about 6.5, and incubating the mixture for about 1 to about 3 hours to produce an incubated mixture.

Processes for converting lignocellulose to feedstock and downstream products are disclosed. The processes may include acid treatment of lignocellulose to produce a fermentation feedstock. In various instances, the processes include recovery or recycling of acid, such as recovery of hydrochloric acid from concentrated and/or dilute streams. Downstream products may include acrylic acid-based products such as diapers, paper and paper-based products, ethanol, biofuels such as biodiesel and fuel additives, and detergents.

The present invention provides process for treating crop kernels, comprising the steps of a) soaking kernels in water to produce soaked kernels; b) grinding the soaked kernels; c) treating the soaked kernels in the presence of an effective amount of an enzyme composition comprising: i) a protease, and ii) a cellulolytic composition, wherein step c) is performed before, during or after step b).

The present invention provides a method for treatment of biomass material by fermentation, said method comprises a pre-treatment of the biomass material by thermal hydrolysis and wet explosion, resulting in an intermediate product having a dry matter concentration above 25% and temperature above 90° C. which is to be introduced to the fermentation, wherein a part of the content of the digestion tank used for the fermentation is recirculated and mixed with a part of the intermediate product from the pre-treatment.

The present invention concerns a method for cleaning a reactor (4) for treating a lignocellulosic biomass (P), said method comprising the following steps: a) draining the reactor of the reaction mixture containing the biomass, b) filling the reactor with a basic aqueous solution (EB), c) draining the reactor, d) injecting steam (V) into the reactor, e) filling the reactor with an aqueous solution (E), f) draining the reactor.

The present invention relates to an improved method and device for treating biomass in which thermally treated biomass is discharged from a pressurized reactor and introduced into a blow tank and then a flash tank, wherein the absolute pressure in the blow tank is maintained above atmospheric pressure and the absolute pressure in the flash tank is maintained below atmospheric pressure. The slurry of biomass separated in the flash tank is then enzymatically treated. The heat from the thermally treated biomass is recovered from the latent heat of a vaporous aqueous stream withdrawn from the blow tank.

It is disclosed a continuous process for soaking a ligno-cellulosic biomass stream in an extraction solution comprising water and dissolved water soluble species derived from a previously treated ligno-cellulosic biomass, wherein the soaked ligno-cellulosic biomass stream is optionally rinsed with a rinse solution stream to produce a soaking liquid. The electrical conductivity of the extraction solution and/or the soaking liquid are controlled to a value in a suitable target range by regulating one or more dilution streams.

The disclosed process is useful to remove non-ligno-cellulosic water soluble compounds from the ligno-cellulosic biomass with a low consumption of water.

A method for producing fermentable sugars from paper is described. The method comprises the steps of preparing an aqueous paper slurry, treating the paper slurry with non-ionic surfactant, adding an enzyme blend to the mixture and incubating the mixture at a temperature ranging from 30° C. to 50° C. to provide fermentable sugars for bioethanol production. The enzyme blend was optimized by combining three parts of cellulase and one part of cellobiase enzymes. The addition of non-ionic surfactant further improved the process yield where the optimum surfactant concentration at twice its critical micelle concentration was selected.

A low-cost process is provided to render lignocellulosic biomass accessible to cellulase enzymes, to produce fermentable sugars. Some variations provide a process to produce ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass (such as sugarcane bagasse or corn stover), comprising introducing a lignocellulosic biomass feedstock to a single-stage digestor; exposing the feedstock to a reaction solution comprising steam or liquid hot water within the digestor, to solubilize the hemicellulose in a liquid phase and to provide a cellulose-rich solid phase; refining the cellulose-rich solid phase, together with the liquid phase, in a mechanical refiner, thereby providing a mixture of refined cellulose-rich solids and the liquid phase; enzymatically hydrolyzing the mixture in a hydrolysis reactor with cellulase enzymes, to generate fermentable sugars; and fermenting the fermentable sugars to produce ethanol. Many alternative process configurations are described. The disclosed processes may be employed for other fermentation products.

Processes and systems for recovering products from a fermentation mash. In some examples, a process for recovering products from a fermentation mash can include processing a ground corn product to produce a fermentation mash that can include ethanol. At least a portion of the ethanol can be separated from the fermentation mash to produce a whole stillage. The whole stillage can be separated to produce a fiber rich product and a filtrate. The fiber rich product can be hydrolyzed to produce a saccharification mash. The saccharification mash can be processed to produce additional ethanol and a stillage protein product.