Patent ID: 6846657

Claim:
A process for the simultaneous production of xylitol and ethanol from a hydrolyzed lignocellulose-containing material, comprising providing a starting material of hydrolyzed lignocellulose-containing material comprising xylose and glucose in aqueous solution, wherein xylose content is 50-300 g/l; fermenting said starting material with a yeast strain which is capable of converting xylose to xylitol and glucose present to ethanol to form a fermented product comprising xylitol, ethanol and yeast, wherein during fermentation the xylose in the starting material is converted to xylitol and the glucose in the starting material is converted to ethanol and 22.3 g/l to 51.2 g/l of ethanol is produced in the fermentation solution; recovering the resulting ethanol by distillation of the fermentation solution to obtain a distillate with ethanol and a remaining solution; and recovering xylitol from the remaining solution by chromatographic separation.