Producing fermentable glucose by acid hydrolysis of lignocelluloses material

Due to the difficulty in finding a strict mechanism for hydrolysis reactions, it is usual to use simplified models to determine the kinetics of the hydrolysis of lignocelluloses material to obtain sugar solutions (xylose and glucose) with low concentrations of inhibitor (furfural and acetic acid). Modeling of concentrate sulfuric acid hydrolysis of Poplar tree pruning has been achieved using quadratic equation and response surface methodology (RSM).A L9 table of Taguchi method was applied to design of hydrolysis experiment and produced sugar was detected by HPLC. A second- order polynominal equation was applied to relate temperature,time, solid content and acid concentration to sugar concentration. Hydrolysis and fermentation are two important and major steps in bioethanol production from lignocelluloses materials. During hydrolysis process, cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin are broken down to mainly glucose, xylose, and phenolic compounds. It is important to determine the fermentable sugar concentration because sugars are the main carbon source for most microorganisms. In this study, the concentrated acid hydrolysis of Poplar tree pruning in form of total sugar production was investigate as a function of 3 variables: acid concentration, temperature andsolid content. A quadratic equation was applied to relate temperature, solid content and acid concentration to sugar concentration.

Keywords:

Kinetic modeling , Fermentable sugar , Acid hydrolysis , Poplar , Response surface model