User:Sgoldmuntz/sandbox

Plantrose® process
The Plantrose®process was developed by Renmatix to convert non-food biomass into industrial sugars in a two-step process:
 * 1) Fractionation of biomass into a C5 sugar oligomer solution and residual solid consisting primarily of cellulose and lignin.
 * 2) Cellulose hydrolysis of the pretreated solids under elevated conditions utilizing supercritical water (>374⁰C and > 218atm) as the primary solvent.

It produces two sugar solutions, a C5 (xylose) rich and a C6 (glucose) rich one, both of which are suitable to industrial fermentation / catalysis. It also produces clean, odorless lignin as a solid product stream.

The relative ease of hydrolysis of the hemicellulose compared to the cellulose necessitates this two-step process in order to preserve the C5 sugars (e.g. xylose) that would be rapidly destroyed under the more severe conditions necessary for cellulose [|dissolution] into C6 sugar (glucose).

The biomass first undergoes size reduction, as necessary. The solids are slurried with water, heated, and then fed to the fractionation reactor where the hemicellulose digestion takes place. The products from the fractionation reactor are sent to a solid/liquid separation step.

The cellulose and lignin rich solids are re-slurried in water and preheated. The slurry is further mixed with hot compressed water and hydrolyzes very rapidly (few seconds) in a pressure vessel. The products from this reaction are then cooled and filtered. Remaining solids, in the form of clean lignin, are collected as a byproduct stream.

Where necessary, the separate C5 and C6 soluble oligomer streams are easily and quickly transformed to monomers through a catalytic process.

Applications
Renmatix developed the Plantrose process to disassemble cellulosic biomass and provide industrial sugars that are cheaper than food-based alternatives. The Plantrose process uses virtually no consumable inputs, and replaces the traditional medium of enzymatic hydrolysis and acid hydrolysis with recyclable water. Designed as biomass-agnostic, the process is now being tested against a range of sustainable, non-food biomass that is abundantly available worldwide.

The Plantrose process is the first to break down cellulose at industrial scale through supercritical hydrolysis, which uses water at elevated temperatures and pressures to quickly solubilize cellulose.

The supercritical state of matter has long been used in industrial processes including coffee decaffeination and pharmaceutical applications.

See Also:

 * Cellulose
 * Cellulosic Sugars
 * Supercritical hydrolysis