Processes for grinding corn, ground corn products, and processes for making ethanol from the ground corn products. In some examples, a process for making ethanol can include introducing a plurality of corn pieces into a mill. The process can also include milling the corn pieces in the mill to produce a ground corn product. Greater than 25 wt % of the ground corn product can have a particle size of greater than 105 μm, as measured according to AOAC 965.22-1966. Greater than 80 wt % of the ground corn product can have a particle size of 425 μm or less, as measured according to AOAC 965.22-1966. The process can also include processing the ground corn product to produce a fermentation mash that can include ethanol and separating at least a portion of the ethanol from the fermentation mash to produce a stillage.

The invention relates to processes of producing sugars and/or fermentation products from pretreated cellulosic material comprising the steps of: preconditioning pretreated cellulosic material; hydrolyzing using a cellulolytic enzyme preparation; and fermenting sugars with a microorganism; wherein a solid-liquid separation step, resulting in a solid fraction and a liquid fraction, is carried out: after preconditioning, but before hydrolysis; or after hydrolysis, but before fermentation; wherein phenol oxidizing enzyme and hemicellulase are present or added during preconditioning; after preconditioning, but before hydrolysis; or during hydrolysis.

This specification describes a process of producing a monomeric sugar stream ligno-cellulosic biomass without enzymes or acid catalysts. This is accomplished by removing the water soluble C5 sugars from the ligno-cellulosic biomass feedstream, lowering the pH of the C5 solution with little or no addition of an acid, thermally treating the remaining ligno-cellulosic biomass, combining the thermally treated ligno-cellulosic biomass with the low pH C5 solution and then exposing the mixture to an elevated temperature greater than 80° C. for a time sufficient to hydrolyze at least some of the components of the ligno-cellulosic biomass. Preferably, the thermally treated ligno-cellulosic biomass is subjected to a fiber shives reduction step to reduce the amount of long fiber shives.

Methods and compositions for processing biomass using [Co(CN)5]3″ are disclosed. The resulting products include monomeric carbohydrate units that can also be converted to basic alcohols, including ethanol, for a variety of uses including transportation fuels and the generation of electricity.

The present invention relates to a method for treating a lignocellulose biomass in order to dissolve the lignin therein, while the cellulose does not dissolve. The cellulose pulp obtained can be used to produce glucose. In addition the lignin can be isolated for subsequent use in the renewable chemical industry as a source for aromatic platform chemicals.

A method of producing lactic acid or a salt or an ester thereof, which includes incubating lignocellulosic hydrolysates in the presence of cells of an isolated strain of Thermoanaerobactor at a temperature above 70 degrees Celsius, wherein the Thermoanaerobactor comprises a 16S rDNA sequence at least 99% identical to the nucleic acid sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO. 1, SEQ ID NO. 2, SEQ ID NO. 3, SEQ ID NO. 4, SEQ ID NO. 5, SEQ ID NO. 6, SEQ ID NO. 7, and SEQ ID NO. 8

The invention relates to a method of processing lignocellulosic biomass comprising: providing lignocellulosic biomass feedstock; pretreating said biomass feedstock by continuous hydrothermal pretreatment in a pressurized reactor; measuring xylan number or lignin number in the output stream of pretreated biomass from the pretreatment reactor; and controlling the pretreatment reactor so as to maintain, in the output stream of pretreated biomass, a pre-determined level of measured xylan number or lignin number. The method allows for continuously controlling the digestibility of a lignocellulosic biomass during the step of pretreatment, and accordingly provides a continuous estimate of the severity of the pretreatment.

The invention relates to methods of saccharifying a cellulosic material comprising subjecting the cellulosic material to a laccase and a cellulolytic enzyme composition comprising a GH61 polypeptide in the presence of dissolved oxygen at a concentration in the range of 0.5-90% of the saturation level. The invention also related to methods of producing desired fermentation products, such as ethanol, using a method including a saccharification step of the invention.

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.

The invention relates to a discharge screw arrangement (12) for discharging lignocellulosic material (7) from a lignocellulosic treatment reactor (1) and comprises a discharge screw (10), a feeder pipe (11) and a blow pipe (5), the discharge screw being accommodated in and rotatably arranged inside the feeder pipe and being configured to mechanically transport the lignocellulosic material in a longitudinal direction along a rotational axis of the discharge screw through the feeder pipe towards a downstream end (14) of the feeder pipe, which discharge screw arrangement is configured to allow steam to flow through the feeder pipe to help transporting the lignocellulosic material in the longitudinal direction along through the feeder pipe and out of the feeder pipe through an outlet nozzle (24) arranged in a side wall of the feeder pipe (11) at the downstream end of the feeder pipe and into the blow pipe, wherein the discharge screw arrangement further comprises a material spreader (20), which is rotatably arranged at the downstream end of the feeder pipe and is configured to transport the lignocellulosic material in a radial direction, perpendicular to a rotational axis of the material spreader, towards the outlet nozzle, which is arranged peripherally of the material spreader, and out of the feeder pipe through the outlet nozzle and into the blow pipe.