Patent ID: 7879379

Claim:
A method of pretreating solid citrus waste, said method comprising pretreating said solid citrus waste by preheating said solid citrus waste through indirect heating in a preheater reactor to form preheated solid citrus waste and conveying said preheated solid citrus waste to a main reactor, heating said preheated solid citrus waste at a temperature of about 90° to about 200° C. through a combination of indirect and direct heating in a main reactor to produce pasteurized citrus waste solids and a vapor containing water and peel oil components, separating said pasteurized citrus waste solids and said vapor containing water and peel oil components to produce separated pasteurized citrus waste solids and separated vapor containing water and peel oil components, cooling said separated pasteurized citrus waste solids to produce cooled pasteurized citrus waste solids, and saccharifying and fermenting said cooled pasteurized citrus waste solids; said method comprising optionally reducing the particle size of said citrus waste prior to said preheating.