Bioethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass: Modeling of pretreatment step

Abstract

Using bioethanol as a fuel is a growing trend all over the world. The economical and biological values or advantages have made it possible to consider the production technology and the utilization of bioethanol as an important fuel. Hydrolysis and fermentation are two important and major steps in bioethanol production from lignocellulosic materials. The most frequent methods to analyze the lignocellulosic materials and to hydrolyze wood in to sugar with capability of being fermented are acid hydrolysis (diluted and concentrated) and enzyme hydrolysis. In this article the effect of different factors on acid hydrolyzes of waste wood are investigated. Sulfuric acid with four different concentrations (15, 25, 30 and 35 (%w/w)) and in three different temperatures ( 60, 70 and 80 C) was used .The experiments was carried out in 2, 3 and 4-hour times and the ratio of wood to acid solution was considered in three levels (5, 8.33 and 11.67(%w/w)). Based on the experimental results, a mathematical model was developed for prediction the amount of sugar produced in acid hydrolyzes of waste wood.