Importance

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Abstract

A system for fermentation of biomass is disclosed. The system comprises a method for producing a fermentation product in a fermentation system from biomass that has been pre-treated and separated into a first component and a second component. The method comprises the steps of supplying the first component to the fermentation system; providing an ethanologen to the fermentation system; maintaining the first component and ethanologen in the fermentation system; and recovering the fermentation product from the fermentation system. A fermentation system configured to produce a fermentation product from biomass that has been pre-treated and separated into a first component and a second component is disclosed. The system comprises a first vessel configured to receive the first component and an ethanologen and a second vessel configured to propagate the ethanologen for supply to the first vessel. A biorefinery for producing a fermentation product from biomass is also disclosed. The biorefinery comprises a preparation system to prepare the biomass into prepared biomass; a pre-treatment system to pre-treat the prepared biomass with a dilute acid for separation into a first component from which pentose can accessed for fermentation and a second component from which hexose can be made available for fermentation; a first treatment system to treat the first component into a treated first component by removing removed components from the first component; a first fermentation system to produce a first fermentation product from the pentose; a distillation system to recover ethanol from the first fermentation product; and a treatment system to process removed components. The biomass comprises lignocellulosic material; the lignocellulosic material comprises at least one of corn cobs, corn plant husks, corn plant leaves and corn plant stalks. The first component comprises pentose; the pentose comprises xylose. The ethanologen is capable of fermenting xylose into ethanol.

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First Claim