Patent ID: 8921629

Claim:
A method comprising: (a) providing a biomass feedstock containing cellulose and water; (b) contacting the biomass feedstock with an organic solvent having partial miscibility with water at 25° C. to form a digested biomass stream containing the organic solvent and water at an organic solvent to water mass ratio of greater than 1:1; (c) contacting the digested biomass stream with molecular hydrogen in the presence of a metal catalyst capable of activating molecular hydrogen, under organic phase hydrothermal conditions to form a hydrocatalytically treated mixture that contains a plurality of hydrocarbon molecules and oxygenated hydrocarbon molecules; (d) phase separating the hydrocatalytically treated mixture, by liquid-liquid separation, into an organic hydrocarbon-rich phase and a water phase comprising water soluble oxygenated hydrocarbons; (e) providing at least a portion of the organic hydrocarbon-rich phase to step (b) to form at least a portion of the organic solvent; and (f) processing at least a portion of the water phase, at least a portion of the organic hydrocarbon-rich phase, or at least a portion of both water phase and organic hydrocarbon-rich phase, to form a fuel blend comprising higher hydrocarbons.