FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a process of separation of biomass into individual components such as cellulose, hemi-cellulose, pentose sugar and lignin with high purity at a time.
BACKGROUND AND PRIOR ART
Cellulosic biomass must be pre-treated to realize high yields vital to commercial success in biological conversion. Better pre-treatment can reduce use of expensive enzymes thus makes the process economically viable. Thus, more attention must be given to gaining insight into interactions among these operations and applying that insight to advance biomass conversion technologies that reduce costs. Although many biological, chemical, and physical methods have been tried over the years, pre-treatment advances are still needed for overall costs to become competitive with conventional commodity fuels and chemicals.
Paper industries have standardized an alkaline pulping process for preparation of cellulose. There are pulping equipments that can run in continuous operations as well. The pulping liquor used contains a very high percentage of alkali (NaOH) along with hydrogen peroxide. There are several problems with this approach because the process is not eco-friendly and the recovery of the catalyst after treatment is very expensive. The pulping liquor damages the hemicellulose and results in the formation of sugar degradation products. The recovery of lignin from the black liquor requires acidification which adds to the cost. The lignin recovered is also degraded and is therefore not in its native form. The process also results in some cellulose loss. Therefore this pulping process cannot be used for the bio-refinery platform.
Over the years the treatment of biomass with ammonia has given promising results (good cellulose hydrolysis). Most of the lab scale studies have used the AFEX (ammonia fibre explosion process) for pre-treating lingo-cellulosic

Biomass. But the scaling up the AFEX process has several drawbacks. To contain the ammonia after explosion process requires huge volume and further re-compression and liquefaction towards recycling requires excess energy thus making the process economically not viable.
Because of the above mentioned drawbacks, the ammonia explosion process becomes very expensive to operate at an industrial scale.
The economical production of bio fuels from lignocellulosic material calls for the fractionation of the material into its components namely cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, and fermentation of the sugars obtained thereof. All the existing knowledge available till date is restricted to separation of cellulose only. No efforts have been made to separate cellulose and lignin at one go.

In order to overcome the above said drawbacks, an effort is made to isolate and separate cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin at a time and with high purity. This will not only make the process environment friendly and economically viable and opens up a new horizon in the area of bio-refinery research.
Objects of the present invention:
1. The main objective of the present invention is to develop an eco-friendly, economical single step process which separates cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin from a biomass with high purity.

2. Yet another objective of the present invention is to obtain easily
hydrolysable cellulose by cellulolytic enzymes.
3. Still in other object of the present invention is to isolate cellulose,
hemicellulose and lignin at a time.
4. Further in other objective of the present invention is to reduce the
treatment time and eliminate the formation of degradation products
like furfurals.
5. Still another objective of the present invention is to provide a
methodology to hydrolyze hemicellulose in the lignocellulosic material
to pentose sugars.
Detailed description of the invention:
Accordingly, the present invention relates to a process for separating biomass
components, said process comprising steps:
(a) contacting biomass components such as herein described with
an alkaline agent capable of dissolving essentially lignin in said
biomass under predetermined pressure and temperature to
dissolve and removing lignin;
(b) reacting water and/or mild acid under predetermined
temperature and pressure with remaining biomass of step (a) to
hydrolyze hemicellulose and subsequently removing from
biomass; and
(c) Thereby obtaining cellulose from the remaining biomass.
In one more aspect of the present invention the biomass components are selected from a group comprising cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin.
Still in another aspect of the present invention the alkaline agent used is ammonia.
Still one more aspects the predetermined temperature used in the process is in the range of 140° to 200°C

Further in another aspect wherein the predetermined pressure is in the range of 10 to 25 bars.
In one more aspect of the present invention the mild acid is selected from a group comprising mineral acids with less than 1% concentration and acid gases dissolved 5 to 10% in water.
One more feature of the present invention the acid gasses are selected from a group comprising CO2 and SO3.
In another embodiment of the present invention is to develop a system for separating biomass, said system comprising:
(a) a reactor chamber for containing biomass, having at least one
inlet and at least one outlet;
(b) a bank cylinder for containing alkaline agent; said bank cylinder
is in fluid flow communication with the inlet of the reactor chamber for
supplying the alkaline agent to the reactor for dissolving lignin;
(c) a reservoir suitable for containing water and/or mild acid; said
reservoir is in fluid flow communication with the inlet of the reactor chamber
for supplying water and/or acid to reactor chamber to hydrolyze
hemicellulose;
(d) a boiler in fluid flow communication with the inlet of the reactor
chamber for supplying steam to the reactor chamber;
(e) a receiver for coupled to the outlet of the reactor chamber for
receiving dissolved lignin from the reactor chamber;
wherein the flow connections between the inlet of the reactor chamber and bank cylinder, reservoir and boiler adapted to operate in tandem.
In one more aspect of this invention, the reactor chamber is adapted to maintain a predetermined pressured and temperature in the reaction chamber.

Still one more aspect of the present invention the reactor chamber comprising:
(a) a first inlet in fluid flow communication with the bank cylinder;
(b) a second inlet in fluid flow communication with the reservoir for
receiving alkaline agent;
(c) a third inlet in fluid flow communication with the boiler for receiving
steam;
(d) a first outlet coupled to the receiver.
wherein the flow connections between the first inlet of the reactor chamber and bank cylinder, second inlet and reservoir, and third inlet and the boiler adapted to operate in tandem.

We Claim:
1. A process for separating biomass components, said process comprising
steps:
(a) contacting biomass components such as herein described with
an alkaline agent capable of dissolving essentially lignin in said
biomass under predetermined pressure and temperature to
dissolve and removing lignin;
(b) reacting water and/or mild acid under predetermined
temperature and pressure with remaining biomass of step (a) to
hydrolyze hemicellulose and subsequently removing from
biomass; and
(c) Thereby obtaining cellulose from the remaining biomass.

2. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the biomass components are
selected from a group comprising cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin.
3. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein alkaline agent is ammonia.
4. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the predetermined
temperature is in the range of 140° to 200°C
5. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the predetermined pressure is
in the range of 10 to 25 bars.
6. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the mild acid is selected from
a group comprising mineral acids with less than 1% concentration and
acid gases dissolved 5 to 10% in water.
7. A process as claimed in claim 6, wherein the acid gasses are selected
from a group comprising CO2 and SO3.
9. A system for separating biomass comprising:
(f) a reactor chamber for containing biomass, having at least one
inlet and at least one outlet;
(g) a bank cylinder for containing alkaline agent; said bank cylinder
is in fluid flow communication with the inlet of the reactor
chamber for supplying the alkaline agent to the reactor for
dissolving lignin;

(h) A reservoir suitable for containing water and/or mild acid; said reservoir is in fluid flow communication with the inlet of the reactor chamber for supplying water and/or acid to reactor chamber to hydrolyze hemicellulose;
(i) A boiler in fluid flow communication with the inlet of the reactor chamber for supplying steam to the reactor chamber;
(j) a receiver for coupled to the outlet of the reactor chamber for receiving dissolved lignin from the reactor chamber; wherein the flow connections between the inlet of the reactor chamber and bank cylinder, reservoir and boiler adapted to operate in tandem.
10. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the reactor chamber is
adapted to maintain a predetermined pressured and temperature in
the reaction chamber.
11. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the reactor chamber
comprising:

(a) a first inlet in fluid flow communication with the bank cylinder;
(b) a second inlet in fluid flow communication with the reservoir
for receiving alkaline agent;
(c) a third inlet in fluid flow communication with the boiler for
receiving steam;
(d) A first outlet coupled to the receiver.
wherein the flow connections between the first inlet of the reactor chamber and bank cylinder, second inlet and reservoir, and third inlet and the boiler adapted to operate in tandem.

Secondary receiver - for stripping the acid gas
11. And 13, Absorbers - for stripping the acid gas
14. Final receiver - collecting vessel