| 摘要 |
A method for fermenting carbohydrate-rich crops is provided. Sugar beet, sugar cane, sweet sorghum, tropical maize hybrids and fruits are rich in simple sugars; potato, sweet potato, cassava and yam are rich in starch; and Jerusalem artichoke is rich in inulin. This method uses vacuum infusion to infuse yeast into the intercellular space (apoplast) of the parenchyma tissue. The simple sugars diffuse into the apoplast, come into contact with the yeast and produce ethanol. Ethanol can be extracted from the crop by vacuum stripping or crushing or can be left inside the starchy crop to preserve it. In some variants, pectinase enzymes degrade the parenchyma cell walls to speed up diffusion of simple sugars to the yeast, speed up diffusion of amylase to starch granules or speed up diffusion of inulinase to insoluble inulin. |
| 主权项 |
1. A process for producing fermentation products from carbohydrate-rich plant parenchyma tissue, said process comprising the steps of:
(a) providing carbohydrate-rich plant parenchyma tissue at a crop temperature; (b) exposing said carbohydrate-rich plant parenchyma tissue to a gas-phase preparation pressure for a preparation time, wherein said gas-phase preparation pressure is less than atmospheric pressure; (c) exposing said carbohydrate-rich plant parenchyma tissue to an aqueous reagent solution at a reagent temperature and a gas-phase infusion pressure for an infusion time, wherein said aqueous reagent solution contains a fermentation organism and wherein said gas-phase infusion pressure is less than atmospheric pressure, and (d) maintaining a gas-phase fermentation pressure for a fermentation time to produce fermentation products within said carbohydrate-rich plant parenchyma tissue, wherein said gas-phase fermentation pressure is greater than two times said gas-phase infusion pressure and wherein at least 25% of the mass of said fermentation products is ethanol. |
