| abstract |
Carbonaceous materials such as biomass (for example, plant biomass, animal biomass and household waste biomass) or coal are processed to produce useful products such as fuels, carboxylic acids and their equivalents (for example, esters and salts). For example, systems have been described that can use raw materials such as cellulosic and / or lignocellulosic materials and / or starchy materials to produce ethanol, butanol or organic acids (for example, acetic or lactic acids), salts of organic acids, and mixtures thereof. If desired, organic acids can be converted into alcohols, for example, by first converting the acid, salt or mixture of acids and their salts to ether, with further hydrogenation of the formed ester. To generate the desired product, acetogens or homoacetogens can be used, which are able to use syngas from the thermochemical conversion of coal or biomass. |