Lignocellulosic biomass (11) is processed to produce organic chemicals by (a) subjecting the biomass to a first hydrolysis (14) to hydrolyse hemicellulose, to form a liquid component comprising the products of hemicellulose hydrolysis in solution, and a solid component comprising cellulose and lignin; (b) then subjecting the solid component to a second hydrolysis (20), so as to hydrolyse cellulose and vaporise the resulting products of cellulose hydrolysis; and (c) then condensing (22) the resulting vapours to form an aqueous solution (25) containing the products of cellulose hydrolysis. After the first hydrolysis (14) and before the second hydrolysis (20), the process also comprises subjecting the solid component to a washing step (16). In this washing step (16) the solid component is washed with the aqueous solution (25) that contains the products of cellulose hydrolysis. Hence the resultant solution contains the products of both the first and the second hydrolysis steps (14, 20).

A method including: (a) selectively reacting a first sugar in a mixture which includes at least one second sugar to form a product mixture comprising a product of said first sugar; (b) separating said product of said first sugar from said product mixture; and (c) separating at least one of said at least one second sugar from said product mixture.

The present invention relates to methods of processing lignocellulosic material to obtain hemicellulose sugars, cellulose sugars, lignin, cellulose and other high-value products. Also provided are hemicellulose sugars, cellulose sugars, lignin, cellulose, and other high-value products.

In one aspect, the present invention provides methods for preparing a fermentation product. The methods include pre-treating a mixture of biomass and ionic liquid, wherein the ionic liquid comprises a choline cation and the biomass comprises polysaccharide and lignin. The methods further include forming hydrolysates from the introduction of glycoside hydrolase to the pre-treated mixture at conditions sufficient to produce a sugar composition mixture for fermentation steps. The present invention provides methods for loading biomass mixtures in a batch-fed process, wherein the biomass slurries can be loaded into water or a concentrated sugar composition for hydrolysate production. The methods can be performed in a one-pot process, wherein the ionic liquids are present in the mixtures throughout each step. Aspects of the invention provide compositions of sugar composition mixtures and fermentation product mixtures.

The invention relates, in general, to methods of processing lignocellulosic biomass to fermentable sugars and to methods that rely on hydrothermal pretreatment. Xylose monomer yields comparable to those achieved using two-stage pretreatments can be achieved from soft lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks by pretreating to very low severity in a single-stage pressurized hydrothermal pretreatment, followed by enzymatic hydrolysis to release xylose retained in the solid state. In some embodiments, pretreated biomass is separated into a solid fraction and a liquid fraction, the solid fraction subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis, and the separated liquid fraction subsequently mixed with the hydrolysed solid fraction.

The present disclosure relates to an improved 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.

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

The present disclosure relates to methods of processing lignocellulosic material to obtain cellulose and cellulose sugars. Also provided are compositions of cellulose hydrolysates.

A process for the conversion of a solid material containing hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin, which process comprises the following steps:

(i) hydrolyzing, at a temperature equal to or less than 40° C., preferably equal to or less than 30° C., at least part of the hemicellulose of the solid material by contacting the solid material with a first aqueous hydrochloric acid solution, which first aqueous hydrochloric acid solution has a hydrochloric acid concentration in the range from equal to or more than 15.0 wt. % to less than 40.0 wt. %, based on the weight amount of water and hydrochloric acid in such first aqueous hydrochloric acid solution, yielding a remaining solid material and an aqueous first hydrolysate product solution;
(ii) displacing aqueous solution from the remaining solid material with a non-aqueous displacement fluid;
(iii) hydrolyzing, at a temperature equal to or less than 40° C., preferably equal to or less than 30° C., at least part of the cellulose of the remaining solid material by replacing the non-aqueous displacement fluid with a second aqueous hydrochloric acid solution, which second aqueous hydrochloric acid solution has a hydrochloric acid concentration in the range from equal to or more than 40.0 wt. % to equal to or less than 51.0 wt. %, based on the weight amount of water and hydrochloric acid in such second aqueous hydrochloric acid solution, yielding a residue and an aqueous second hydrolysate product solution,
wherein the reactor in which step (i) takes place is flooded with a plug of intermediate prehydrolysate solution prior to step (i).

The invention relates to a process for the preparation of a fermentation product from lignocellulosic material, comprising the following steps: a) optionally, pretreatment of the lignocellulosic material, b) optionally, washing of the optionally pretreated lignocellulosic material, c) enzymatic hydrolysis of the optionally washed and/or optionally pretreated lignocellulosic material using an enzyme composition comprising at least two cellulases and whereby the enzyme composition at least comprises LPMO, and optionally purifying the hydrolysed lignocellulosic material, d) fermentation of the hydrolysed lignocellulosic material to produce a fermentation product, and e) optionally, recovery of a fermentation product, wherein the amounts of formed hydrolysed oxidation products at the end of the enzymatic hydrolysis by the oxidation by LPMO of the lignocellulosic material containing cellulose and/or cello-oligosaccharides is kept between 3 to 80 g/kg glucan present in the lignocellulosic material by adding a suitable amount of oxygen after the pre-treatment and before and/or during the enzymatic hydrolysis to the lignocellulosic material, preferably the formed hydrolysed oxidation product is gluconic acid, an aldonic acid and/or geminal diol, more preferably the hydrolysed oxidation product is gluconic acid.