High-solids pretreatment process in ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass

Conference · Wed Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1997

OSTI ID:560069

Kadam, K L; Hsu, Teh-An ^[1]

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1. National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States)

Lignocellulosic biomass can be converted into ethanol by fermentative processes, however, efficient pretreatment of the biomass is essential for success. This paper describes a high-solids (40-50% solids) pretreatment process that can improve the efficacy of the overall biomass-to-ethanol technology. A 130-L reactor, designed for processing slurries containing 30-50% solids, was used to demonstrate the process using dilute sulfuric acid. This pilot study showed that the proposed approach is superior to a low-solids process for the following reasons (1) Lower acid consumption on a unit dry weight of biomass; (2) A very high degree of xylan hydrolysis, with most of the xylan being converted to xylose; (3) Relatively low furfural formation; (4) Extremely high xylose-equivalent concentration in the liquid phase; and (5) Lower costs due to reductions in reactor capacity, heating energy, and water usage. Furthermore, the resultant pretreated biomass shows good enzymatic digestibility and, therefore, is a suitable substrate.

• OSTI ID: 560069
• Report Number(s): CONF-970443--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
55 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
BASIC STUDIES
BIOSYNTHESIS
CELLULOSE
ETHANOL
FURFURAL
HYDROLYSIS
LIGNIN
SLURRIES
XYLOSE