The invention describes products, uses thereof, compositions thereof, and methods to prepare products formed from Maillard reaction products from a sugar donor and/or sweet tea extracts, Stevia extracts, swingle (mogroside) extracts, one or more sweet tea extract components, one or more steviol glycosides, one or more mogrosides, one or more glycosylated sweet tea glycosides, one or more glycosylated steviol glycosides or one or more glycosylated mogrosides and an amine donor/reactant.

A method of processing an aqueous hemicellulosic stream containing lignin, comprising: (a) contacting an aqueous hemicellulosic stream containing lignin with a C.sub.3-8 alkyl alcohol at elevated temperature and acidic pH; (b) separating the reaction mixture obtained from step (a) into an aqueous phase containing hemicellulose-derived monosaccharide and an organic phase containing C.sub.3-8 alkyl alcohol; (c) concentrating the organic phase obtained from step (b) to remove at least some C.sub.3-8 alkyl alcohol; (d) treating the residue from step (c) with water or an aqueous medium having an alkaline pH; and (e) recovering C.sub.3-8 alkyl alcohol from the product of step (d).

Sweetener and flavor compositions with improved taste profiles are disclosed. Also disclosed are methods of making and methods of using such sweetener and flavor compositions.

The present disclosure provides methods for generating sugars from a cellulosic biomass. The methods combine treatment of the biomass using a high-shear milling device and saccharification of the biomass to partially hydrolyze the biomass. The biomass can be saccharified either after or simultaneously with the high-shear milling treatment. The partially hydrolyzed biomass is then separated into a solids stream with saccharification enzymes, and a liquid stream with sugars. The solids stream and associated enzymes are further incubated under saccharification conditions to produce additional sugars, or are recycled and added to fresh biomass, which is saccharified under high-shear milling conditions. The methods result in improved conversion of cellulosic biomass to glucose.

This disclosure describes processes for using a single cellulosic feedstock or a combination of two or more different cellulosic feedstocks with a starch component to produce a fermented product. The process includes separating the components of the cellulosic feedstocks with fractionation, pretreating a component with wet fractionation with chemicals, hydrolysis and fermentation of the pretreated feedstock(s) to produce cellulosic biofuel. The process may include combining the cellulosic feedstock(s) with other components to a cook and/or a fermentation process, distilling and dehydrating the combined components to produce the bio fuel. The process may also include producing a whole stillage stream from the feedstock(s) and mechanically processing the whole stillage stream to produce a high-value protein animal feed.

The present disclosure relates to systems, methods, and processes for the production of sugars and conversion products from biomass.

Reactor assemblies and methods for hydrolytic biomass conversion are disclosed herein. The reactor assemblies employ solely hydrostatic pressure, applied by the liquid biomass slurry, as means of providing pressure necessary to maintain high temperature conditions suitable for hydrolytic biomass conversion resulting in the formation of soluble pentose compounds. In embodiments, the methods employed in conjunction with the reactor assemblies yield soluble C.sub.5 carbohydrates in the forms of oligosaccharides and monosaccharides from one or more biomass slurries.

A process for the separation of a monosaccharide from an aqueous solution comprising the monosaccharide, in particular a hydrolysate of a polysaccharide containing biomass, characterized in that a) the solution comprises one or more salts or mineral acids, b) the solution is contacted with a zeolite adsorbent preferably of BEA zeotype for adsorbing the monosaccharide on the zeolite, c) the zeolite with the adsorbed monosaccharide is separated from the solution, d) the monosaccharide is separated from the zeolite absorbent. The process in a chromatographic process, in particular SMB, produces relatively highly concentrated and pure monosaccharide solution in water.

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.

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.