IMPROVED PROCESS FOR TREATING BIOMASS TO PRODUCE MATERIALS USEFUL FOR BIOFUELS

摘要

Since biomass is always accompanied by caustic inorganic materials, we have found that the formation of the anion salt of a-hydroxysulfonic acid represent the largest "loss" of the a-hydroxysulfonic acid in the potential reversible acid pretreatment process. By titrating the a-hydroxysulfonic acid salt with strong mineral acid and then reverting the alfa-hydroxysulfonic acid as its primary components, the acid components can be recovered substantially quantitatively.