Patent ID: 8524471

Claim:
A method for the enzymatic treatment of raw polymeric feedstock comprising soluble and insoluble components, the method comprising: a. treating the insoluble raw polymeric feedstock with an enzyme system in order to liberate defined soluble monomeric or oligomeric building blocks from the raw polymeric feedstock; and b. separating the defined soluble monomeric or oligomeric building blocks produced in a) from the remainder of the insoluble raw polymeric feedstock, wherein the raw polymeric feedstock comprises at least 1 wt-% lignin, and wherein a) and b) are sequentially repeated one or more times with different enzyme systems in order to liberate from the remainder of the raw polymeric feedstock other defined soluble monomeric or oligomeric building blocks, and wherein the enzyme system used in a particular enzymatic treatment contains not more than 20% of contaminating enzymatic activities, which can cause liberation of other defined monomeric or oligomeric building blocks, which have not been liberated in previous enzymatic treatments.