A kinetic model for hydrothermal pretreatment of sugarcane straw. (March 2017) - dos Santos Rocha, Martha Suzana Rodrigues
Highlights: Cellulose and hemicellulose degradation were modelled in pretreatment step. A significant variation on kinetic parameters occurs with the reaction temperature. Models were validated with experimental data and statistical analysis. Models fitted well to the experimental data. Abstract: This work presents kinetic models of cellulose and hemicellulose extraction during hydrothermal pretreatment of sugarcane straw. Biomass was treated under conditions of 180, 195, and 210 °C, using a solid/liquid ratio of 1:10 (w/v). In this study, cellobiose, glucose, formic acid and hydroxymethylfurfural (from cellulosic fraction) and xylose, arabinose, acetic acid, glucuronic acid and furfural (from hemicellulosic fraction) were taken into account in the kinetic parameters determination. The global search algorithm Simulated Annealing was used to fit the models. At 195 °C/15 min, 85% of hemicellulose and 21% of cellulose removal was reached. For the confidence regions, it was observed that it can be broad, which is coherent with the fact that the parameters are highly correlated. Kinetic models proposed for both cellulosic and hemicellulosic fractions degradation fitted well to the experimental data.