Bioconversion of industrial cellulosic pulp materials to protein-enriched product

DETAILED DESCRIPTION What I claim is: 1.
A process for the formation of proteinaceous material, which consists of: (a) aerobically fermenting a sterile mixture of a cellulose-starchy material in divided form selected from the group consisting of banana, potato, yam and cassava and a solution of non-carbon nutrient supplement in a culture of the fungus, Chaetomium cellulolyticum, at a pH of about 5 to about 7 and at a temperature of about 30.
degree.
to about 45.
degree.
C.
for a time sufficient to grow the fungus and provide a solid mass consisting of about 20 to about 80% DM of the fungus and the balance of unfermented cellulose-starchy material, and (b) separating the resulting solid mass from the fermentation medium.
2.
The process of claim 1 wherein said non-carbon fermentation nutrient chemical solution is a synthetic mixture of nutrient element-containing chemicals.
3.
The process of claim 1 wherein said non-carbon fermentation nutrient chemical solution is formed by anaerobically digesting animal manure.
4.
The process of claim 3, wherein said animal manure is swine manure.




Description:
FIELD OF INVENTION The present invention relates to the conversion of cellulosic materials by a fermentation process into products which contain microbial biomass, such products being useful as human or animal food for their protein and other nutritive values.
In the following description concentrations of substances are expressed as W/V (for weight per unit volume of total mixture), as V/V (for volume per unit volume of total mixture), as W/W (for weight per unit weight of total mixture), or as DM (for weight per unit weight of total mixture on a dry matter basis).
BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION Vast quantities of cellulosic materials occur universally as surplus and waste residues of industrial processing and other operations.
They occur in various processed forms, such as, pulp sludges from the manufacture of paper, commonly known as clarifier sludge, coffee, commonly known as coffee grounds, and cane sugar, commonly known as bagasse pith