METHOD FOR VISCOSITY REDUCTION IN CO-FERMENTATION ETHANOL PROCESSES
The present disclosure provides methods and compositions for reducing the viscosity of biomass process streams in an ethanol production process. The method comprises adding cellulase enzymes to a biomass feedstock that is fermented to produce ethanol, generating whole stillage and thin stillage streams from the post-fermentation biomass, and adding an additional enzyme or enzyme cocktail that reduces the viscosity of the whole stillage stream, thin stillage stream, concentrated thin stillage stream, and/or the syrup stream generated by evaporating the thin stillage.
1 . A method for producing a chemical compound, the method comprising:
a) Forming a mash or slurry comprising a non-cellulosic sugars and a lignocellulose fiber;
b) Fermenting the mash to produce a chemical compound from the non-cellulosic sugar;
c) Adding an enzyme to the fermenting mash to hydrolyze the lignocellulose fiber to cellulosic sugars and cellulosic sugar oligomers;
d) Continuing fermenting the non-cellulosic and the cellulosic sugars to produce additional chemical compound; and,
e) Terminating the fermentation and recovering the chemical compound.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said mash is mechanically pretreated with a high shear rotor stator device with a gap between the surface of the rotor and the stator of between 0.10 mm and 0.75 mm.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the mechanical pretreatment produces particles such that the majority of particles have a particle size between about 100 and 1000 microns.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said enzyme is added to the fermenting grain mash after a time period of at least about 8 hours following the initiation of fermentation.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said enzyme is added to the fermenting grain mash when the non-cellulosic sugar concentration is less than about 8% w/v.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said enzyme comprises a cellulase, a hemicellulase, or combinations thereof.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said mash comprises glucose and corn kernel fiber.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said non-cellulosic sugar comprises glucose and glucose oligomers from starch.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said cellulosic sugar comprises glucose, xylose, mannose, arabinose and combinations thereof from corn kernel fiber.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the chemical compound is ethanol.
11 . The method of claim 6 , wherein after recovery of said chemical compound a second enzyme is added to the post fermentation mash to manage viscosity of downstream processes.
12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the second enzyme is the same as the first said enzyme.
13 . A method for producing ethanol, the method comprising:
a. Forming a corn mash comprising glucose sugars from starch and corn kernel fiber;
b. Fermenting the said glucose sugars from starch to produce ethanol;
c. Adding an enzyme to the fermenting corn mash suitable for hydrolyzing the corn kernel fiber to cellulosic sugars and cellulosic sugar oligomers;
d. Continuing fermenting said glucose sugars and cellulosic sugars to ethanol; and,
e. Terminating the fermentation and recovering the ethanol.
14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the corn mash is mechanically pretreated with a high shear rotor stator device with a gap between the surface of the rotor and the stator of between 0.10 mm and 0.75 mm.
15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the mechanical pretreatment produces particles such that the majority of particles have a particle size between about 100 and 1000 microns.
16 . The method of claim 13 , wherein said enzyme comprises a cellulase, a hemicellulose, or combinations thereof.
17 . The method of claim 13 , wherein said enzyme is added to the fermenting corn mash after a time period of at least about 8 hours following the initiation of fermentation.
18 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the enzyme is added to the fermenting corn mash when the non-cellulosic sugars concentration is less than about 8% w/v.
19 . The method of claim 16 , wherein after recovery of said ethanol a second enzyme is added to the post fermentation mash to manage viscosity of downstream processes.
20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the second enzyme is the same as the first said enzyme.