Method and apparatus for treatment of biomass substrates
A system and method for the treatment of biomass comprising mixing a biomass with an ionic liquid (IL) to swell the biomass and electromagnetic (EM) heating, preferably radiofrequency (RF) heating, said biomass. Additionally, a method of acidolysis of biomass comprising mixing biomass in an ionic liquid (IL) to swell the biomass; adding an acid, to lower the pH of the biomass below pH 7; applying radio frequency (RF) heating to the biomass to heat to a target temperature range; applying ultrasonic heating, electromagnetic (EM) heating, convective heating, conductive heating, or combinations thereof, to the biomass to maintain the biomass at a target temperature range; washing the treated biomass; and recovering sugars and released lignin.
1. A method for the treatment of biomass comprising mixing a biomass with an ionic liquid (IL) to swell said biomass and radiofrequency (RF) heating said swelled biomass,
wherein said heating comprises at least two phases, a first phase comprising heating and a second phase comprising application of radiofrequency (RF) heating.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said biomass is agricultural residues; wood and forest residues; algae; kudzu; coal; cellulose, lignin, herbaceous energy crops; lignocellulosic; biomass; plant biomass; or mixtures thereof.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein said agricultural residues are corn stover, wheat straw, bagasse, rice hulls, rice straw, or combinations thereof.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein said wood and forest residues are pine, poplar, douglas fir, oak, saw dust, paper/pulp waste, wood fiber, or combinations thereof.
5. The method of claim 2 , wherein said herbaceous energy crops are switchgrass, reed canary grass, miscanthus, or combinations thereof.
6. The method of claim 2 , wherein lignocellulosic biomass comprises lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said radiofrequency comprises a frequency between about 1-300 MHz, 3-30 kHz, 300 kHz-3 MHz, 3-30 MHz, 30-300 MHz, or 3 kHz to 3 MHz.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein said radiofrequency comprises a frequency between about 3-30 kHz.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein said biomass is heated in the first and second heating phase to a temperature of at least about 1-300° C., 50° C.-100° C., 60° C.-130° C., 80° C.-175° C., or 100° C.-240° C.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein said method further comprises washing the treated biomass.
11. The method of claim 10 , wherein said washing comprises washing the biomass with a liquid non-solvent for cellulose that is miscible with water and the ionic liquid (IL).
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the liquid non-solvent used for washing is water, an alcohol, acetonitrile or a solvent which dissolves the IL and thereby extracts the IL from the biomass.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein said ionic liquid is recovered from the liquid non-solvent by activated charcoal treatment, distillation, membrane separation, electro-chemical separation techniques, solid-phase extraction, liquid-liquid extraction, or a combination thereof.
14. The method of claim 12 , wherein said ionic liquid is recovered from the liquid non-solvent by application of electromagnetic heating, that dehydrates the ionic liquid.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein said electromagnetic heating is radiofrequency heating.
16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the biomass is subjected to additional heating with agitation, ultrasonics heating, electromagnetic (EM) heating, convective heating, conductive heating, microwave irradiation, or a combination thereof.
17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the biomass is subjected to additional heating, further comprising intermittent agitation during heating.
18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ionic liquid comprises a cation structure that includes ammonium, sulfonium, phosphonium, lithium, imidazolium, pyridinium, picolinium, pyrrolidinium, thiazolium, triazolium, oxazolium, or combinations thereof.
19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the ionic liquid comprises a cation selected from imidazolium, pyrrolidinium, pyridinium, phosphonium, ammonium, or a combination thereof.
20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ionic liquid (IL) is 1-n-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, 1-allyl-3-methyl imidazolium chloride, 3-methyl-N-butylpyridinium chloride, 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium acetate, 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium propionatem, or combinations thereof.
21. The method of claim 1 , wherein the conditions of said biomass undergoing radiofrequency (RF) heating is monitored by means of sensors.
22. The method of claim 21 , wherein said sensor is a liquid flow rate sensor, thermocouple sensor, temperature sensor, salinity sensor, or a combination thereof.
23. The method of claim 1 , wherein said method further comprises treating said treated biomass with enzymes, to convert the cellulose and hemicellulose to sugars.
24. The method of claim 23 , wherein said are thermophilic enzymes, that are active up to about 70° C.
25. The method of claim 23 , wherein said method further comprises recovering the enzymes.
26. The method of claim 23 , wherein said sugars are hexose sugars, pentose sugars, and mixtures thereof.
27. The method of claim 1 , wherein said treatment produces a solid residue comprising proteins and lignin.
28. The method of claim 1 , wherein said application of radiofrequency heating is for about 1-60 minutes.
29. The method of claim 1 , wherein said biomass is heated in the first and second heating phase to a temperature of about 80° C.-175° C.
30. The method of claim 1 , wherein said method is performed on a large scale.
31. The method of claim 1 , wherein said method is performed with high solids loading.
32. The method of claim 31 , wherein said high solids loading is >20% w/w.
33. The method of claim 1 , wherein said first phase heating comprises convective heating, conductive heating, or a combination thereof.
34. The method of claim 1 , wherein said method is a continuous method.
35. A method of acidolysis of biomass comprising
(a) mixing biomass in an ionic liquid (IL) to swell said biomass;
(b) adding an acid;
(c) an initial heating phase comprising heating the biomass to heat to a target temperature range;
(d) a maintenance heating phase comprising applying radiofrequency (RF) heating to the biomass to maintain the biomass at said target temperature range; and
(e) recovering sugars.
36. The method of claim 35 , wherein said method further comprises addition of a base to neutralize the pH of the biomass.
37. The method of claim 36 , wherein the base is NaOH, KOH, or a combination thereof.
38. The method of claim 35 , wherein said method further comprises washing said biomass after step (a).
39. The method of claim 35 , wherein said acid is sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, or phosphoric acid.
40. The method of claim 35 , wherein the method further comprises the step of lowering the pH of the biomass below pH 7.
41. The method of claim 40 , wherein the pH is lowered to 1-6.
42. The method of claim 35 , wherein the target temperature range is 50-220° C.
43. The method of claim 35 , wherein said sugars are pentose, hexose, or a combination thereof.
44. The method of claim 35 , wherein said initial phase heating comprises convective heating, conductive heating, or a combination thereof.
45. The method of claim 35 , wherein said method is a continuous method.