Patent ID: 8440845

Claim:
A process for converting a polysaccharide-containing material to a fuel additive or a fuel substitute material, said process comprising the steps of: (i) dissolving the polysaccharide-containing material in an inorganic molten salt hydrate; (ii) hydrolyzing components of the cellulose-containing material in the inorganic molten salt hydrate medium to form monosaccharides; (iii) hydrogenating the monosaccharides obtained in step (ii) in the inorganic molten salt medium to the corresponding sugar alcohols; (iv) dehydrating the sugar alcohols obtained in step (iii) in the inorganic molten salt medium to form the corresponding anhydro sugars and/or dianhydro sugars; (v) derivatizing the (di)anhydro sugars obtained in step (iv), in the inorganic molten salt medium, to form derivatized (di)anhydro sugars having reduced solubility in the inorganic molten salt hydrate medium.