Chemical Engineering Communications, Vol.194, No.1, 103-116, 2007
Concentrated acid conversion of pine sawdust to sugars. Part II: High-temperature batch reactor kinetics of pretreated pine sawdust
A study of high-temperature, concentrated-acid hydrolysis kinetics was undertaken for pretreated pine utilizing a corotating twin-screw extruder reactor. Five different acid concentrations were prepared ranging from 5 to 30 wt.% acid. These solutions were subjected to high-temperature acid hydrolysis at 110 degrees, 120 degrees, and 130 degrees C using a custom-fabricated zirconium batch reactor. A number of nonlinear and linear regression analyses were undertaken so that the concentration of less resistant cellulose, resistant cellulose, glucose, and decomposition products could be obtained as a function of time, temperature, and acid concentration. Application of the kinetic rate constants obtained from the static batch reactor hydrolysis studies demonstrates that more than 50% of the theoretical glucose available in the pine sawdust can be obtained in roughly 25 minutes and 41% of the theoretical glucose available can be achieved in as little as 3 minutes. Further analysis highlights the importance of the pretreatment technique in achieving significant quantities of theoretical glucose in a short high-temperature reaction time.