Granted Patent B1

US 12,369,606 · App. 18/120,186 · Granted Jul 29, 2025

Inventor: Kristi Plack (Harrisburg, SD)

Assignee: Soliton, LLC

A23K10/38A23L7/104A23L7/115B02B1/02C12P7/06B02B5/02

Abstract

Claims (21)

1. A method of quantifying fiber content in cellulosic feedstock by mass closure, the method comprising:

determining moisture content of a sample of cellulosic feedstock and if the moisture content is greater than 15 wt-%, drying the sample to below 15 wt-% moisture;

determining protein, fat, starch, and ash content of the sample on a dry weight basis;

determining non-saccharide soluble organics content of the sample by:

extracting lactic acid, glycerol, and acetic acid from the sample; and

measuring amount of the lactic acid, the glycerol, and the acetic acid; and

calculating the fiber content as 100−(% dry weight protein+% dry weight fat+% dry weight starch+% dry weight ash+% dry weight non-saccharide soluble organics).

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the measuring of the amount of the lactic acid, the glycerol, and the acetic acid is done via HPLC.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the extracting of the lactic acid, the glycerol, and the acetic acid from the sample comprises:

grinding a portion of the sample to provide a ground sample;

mixing the ground sample with water to provide a suspension;

incubating the suspension; and

separating a supernatant from the incubated suspension.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cellulosic feedstock comprises processed grain residuals from an ethanol production process.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cellulosic feedstock comprises animal feed.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method comprises quantifying fiber content in a first sample comprising pre-process material from an ethanol production process and quantifying fiber content in a second sample comprising processed grain residuals from the ethanol production process.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the method produces a conversion ratio.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the method produces a converted fraction report comprising a mass closure calculation of pre-process grain material and processed grain residuals from an ethanol production process.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the mass closure calculation comprises calculating a fiber content of the pre-process grain material and the processed grain residuals as 100−(% dry weight protein+% dry weight fat+% dry weight starch+% dry weight ash+% dry weight non-saccharide soluble organics).

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the % dry weight protein, the % dry weight fat, the % dry weight starch, and the % dry weight ash are determined using AOAC official methods and the % dry weight non-saccharide soluble organics is determined by extracting the lactic acid, the glycerol, and the acetic acid from the pre-process grain material and the processed grain residuals and measuring the amount of the lactic acid, the glycerol, and the acetic acid via HPLC.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the % dry weight starch is determined without a wash step.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (3)

References Cited (62)