DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Bridging Scales in Bioenergy and Catalysis: A Review of Mesoscale Modeling Applications, Methods, and Future Directions

Journal Article · · Energy and Fuels

Between the molecular and reactor scales, which are familiar to the chemical engineering community, lies an intermediate regime, here termed the “mesoscale,” where transport phenomena and reaction kinetics compete on similar time scales. Bioenergy and catalytic processes offer particularly important examples of mesoscale phenomena owing to their multiphase nature and the complex, highly variable porosity characteristic of biomass and many structured catalysts. In this review, we overview applications and methods central to mesoscale modeling as they apply to reaction engineering of biomass conversion and catalytic processing. A brief historical perspective is offered to put recent advances in context. Applications of mesoscale modeling are described, and several specific examples from biomass pyrolysis and catalytic upgrading of bioderived intermediates are highlighted. Methods including reduced order modeling, finite element and finite volume approaches, geometry construction and import, and visualization of simulation results are described; in each category, recent advances, current limitations, and areas for future development are presented. Owing to improved access to high-performance computational resources, advances in algorithm development, and sustained interest in reaction engineering to sustainably meet societal needs, we conclude that a significant upsurge in mesoscale modeling capabilities is on the horizon that will accelerate design, deployment, and optimization of new bioenergy and catalytic technologies.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Transportation Office. Bioenergy Technologies Office
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1820591
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA--2800-80435; MainId:42638; UUID:398b72a9-6db9-492a-b01e-0269762173b1; MainAdminID:61806
Journal Information:
Energy and Fuels, Journal Name: Energy and Fuels Journal Issue: 18 Vol. 35; ISSN 0887-0624
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (161)

Machine learning for heterogeneous catalyst design and discovery journal May 2018
Coupling particle scale model and SuperDEM‐CFD for multiscale simulation of biomass pyrolysis in a packed bed pyrolyzer journal January 2021
An improved experimental reactor for applied kinetic studies journal September 1958
The catalytic effectiveness factor under nonisothermal conditions journal June 1961
Laboratory reactors and their limitations journal September 1974
Catalyst bed dilution for improving catalyst wetting in laboratory trickle-bed reactors journal September 1996
Increasing cellulose accessibility is more important than removing lignin: A comparison of cellulose solvent-based lignocellulose fractionation and soaking in aqueous ammonia journal September 2010
A pore-hindered diffusion and reaction model can help explain the importance of pore size distribution in enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass journal September 2012
Pyrogenetische Contactreactionen organischer Verbindungen journal April 1903
Hydrogénations et déshydrogénations par catalyse journal July 1911
Generalised criteria for the stability of catalytic reactors journal April 1970
Managing application complexity in the SAMRAI object-oriented framework journal January 2002
Mesoscale Reaction–Diffusion Phenomena Governing Lignin‐First Biomass Fractionation journal May 2020
Advances in Versatile Nanoscale Catalyst for the Reductive Catalytic Fractionation of Lignin journal April 2021
Zur Frage Über die Zersetzung des Äthylalkohols in Gegenwart verschiedener Katalysatoren journal April 1903
Enabling immersive engagement in energy system models with deep learning
  • Bugbee, Bruce; Bush, Brian W.; Gruchalla, Kenny
  • Statistical Analysis and Data Mining: The ASA Data Science Journal, Vol. 12, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1002/sam.11419
journal May 2019
Advancing catalytic fast pyrolysis through integrated multiscale modeling and experimentation: Challenges, progress, and perspectives
  • Ciesielski, Peter N.; Pecha, M. Brennan; Bharadwaj, Vivek S.
  • Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Vol. 7, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1002/wene.297
journal April 2018
Theoretical derivation of Darcy's law journal September 1977
Comparison of changes in micropores and mesopores in the wood cell walls of sapwood and heartwood journal June 2015
Permeability prediction of porous media using a combination of computational fluid dynamics and hybrid machine learning methods journal March 2020
Theoretical insight into the conversion of xylose to furfural in the gas phase and water journal October 2015
Micropores and mesopores in the cell wall of dry wood journal November 2009
Model reduction for fractured porous media: a machine learning approach for identifying main flow pathways journal March 2019
Synthesis and characterization of Ti-SBA-16 ordered mesoporous silica composite journal May 2007
On shape factors for irregular particles—I journal January 1957
The temperature produced by heat of reaction in the interior of porous particles journal June 1958
The behaviour of porous catalyst particles in view of internal mass and heat diffusion effects journal April 1962
A general criterion for diffusion influenced chemical reactions in porous solids journal June 1965
Non-isothermal effectiveness factors journal March 1969
Prediction of the effectiveness factor and selectivity for highly exothermic reactions journal February 1970
The role of axial dispersion in trickle-flow laboratory reactors journal September 1971
Heat transfer and kinetics in the low temperature pyrolysis of solids journal January 1984
Diagnostic criteria for heat transport limitations in fixed bed reactors journal February 1971
VMD: Visual molecular dynamics journal February 1996
Solid dissolution in a batch process with intraparticle diffusion and lumped kinetics journal September 2002
Interpretation of Measurements in Experimental Catalysis book January 1954
Experimental validation of a multiphase flow model of a lab-scale fluidized-bed gasification unit journal July 2021
Semi-resolved modeling of heat-up, drying and pyrolysis of biomass solid particles as a new feature in XDEM journal January 2016
A review on alkaline pretreatment technology for bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass journal January 2016
Evaluation of the mass transfer effects on delignification kinetics of atmospheric acetic acid fractionation of sugarcane bagasse with a shrinking-layer model journal August 2018
A history of industrial catalysis journal April 2011
Deactivation of a Co/Al2O3 Fischer–Tropsch catalyst by water-induced sintering in slurry reactor: Modeling and experimental investigations journal October 2013
Direct numerical simulation for flow and heat transfer through random open-cell solid foams: Development of an IBM based CFD model journal September 2016
Multi-scale simulation of reaction, transport and deactivation in a SBA-16 supported catalyst for the conversion of ethanol to butadiene journal November 2019
A computational framework for the pyrolysis of anisotropic biomass particles journal August 2017
Beyond the effectiveness factor: Multi-step reactions with intraparticle diffusion limitations journal January 2020
Assessment of a detailed biomass pyrolysis kinetic scheme in multiscale simulations of a single-particle pyrolyzer and a pilot-scale entrained flow pyrolyzer journal August 2021
Simulations of biomass pyrolysis using glued-sphere CFD-DEM with 3-D intra-particle models journal September 2021
Direct numerical simulation of fluid–particle heat transfer in fixed random arrays of non-spherical particles journal June 2015
Coupled CFD and chemical-kinetics simulations of cellulosic-biomass enzymatic hydrolysis: Mathematical-model development and validation journal October 2019
Bridging particle and reactor scales in the simulation of biomass fast pyrolysis by coupling particle resolved simulation and coarse grained CFD-DEM journal April 2020
Investigation of the apparent kinetics of air and oxy-fuel biomass combustion in a spout fluidised-bed reactor journal January 2020
A fast-solving particle model for thermochemical conversion of biomass journal March 2020
Adaptive mesh based combustion simulations of direct fuel injection effects in a supersonic cavity flame-holder journal October 2021
Modeling and control of cell wall thickness in batch delignification journal September 2019
On solving the 3-D phase field equations by employing a parallel-adaptive mesh refinement (Para-AMR) algorithm journal May 2015
Numerical optimization of proton exchange membrane fuel cell cathodes journal February 2007
Numerical analysis of a biomass pyrolysis particle model: Solution method optimized for the coupling to reactor models journal July 2012
Performance of ethanol steam reforming in a membrane-assisted packed bed reactor using multiscale modelling journal August 2020
Machine learning prediction of thermal transport in porous media with physics-based descriptors journal October 2020
Artificial neural network modeling of hydrogen-rich syngas production from methane dry reforming over novel Ni/CaFe2O4 catalysts journal July 2016
Enhanced lignin extraction from different species of oil palm biomass: Kinetics and optimization of extraction conditions journal June 2018
Modeling and simulation of biomass fast pyrolysis in a fluidized bed reactor journal March 2016
Online experiments and modelling with a detailed reaction scheme of single particle biomass pyrolysis journal September 2017
Effects of mass transfer on Fischer-Tropsch kinetics over mesoporous silica-supported Co Mn Ce nano catalysts in a fixed-bed reactor journal May 2016
Flowthrough Reductive Catalytic Fractionation of Biomass journal November 2017
An error-controlled adaptive time-stepping method for particle advancement in coupled CFD-DEM simulations journal February 2021
Single large wood log conversion in a stove: Experiments and modelling journal December 2019
Modeling of biomass gasification: A review journal November 2014
Catalytic Conversion of Carbohydrates to Initial Platform Chemicals: Chemistry and Sustainability journal November 2017
Green and Sustainable Solvents in Chemical Processes journal January 2018
Critical Review of the Global Chemical Kinetics of Cellulose Thermal Decomposition journal April 2015
Computational Generation of Lignin Libraries from Diverse Biomass Sources journal July 2017
A Spatial Kinetic Model To Simulate Heat- and Mass-Transfer Transients within Biomass Particles during Hydrolysis journal July 2018
Integrated Particle- and Reactor-Scale Simulation of Pine Pyrolysis in a Fluidized Bed journal September 2018
A Boudart Number for the Assessment of Irreducible Pellet-Scale Mass Transfer Limitations: Application to Oxidative Coupling of Methane journal January 2021
Reaction Kinetic Model of Dilute Acid-Catalyzed Hemicellulose Hydrolysis of Corn Stover under High-Solid Conditions journal September 2017
Physicochemical Modeling for Pressurized Hot Water Extraction of Spruce Wood journal November 2018
Predicting Average Void Fraction and Void Fraction Uncertainty in Fixed Beds of Poly Lobed Particles journal February 2019
Methanolysis Fractionation and Catalytic Conversion of Poplar Wood toward Methyl Levulinate, Phenolics, and Glucose journal August 2019
Influence of Rubbery versus Glassy Backbone Dynamics on Multiscale Transport in Polymer Membranes journal November 2018
Toward Benchmarking in Catalysis Science: Best Practices, Challenges, and Opportunities journal March 2016
Phenomena Affecting Catalytic Reactions at Solid–Liquid Interfaces journal November 2016
Dehydration, Dienes, High Octane, and High Pressures: Contributions from Vladimir Nikolaevich Ipatieff, a Father of Catalysis journal August 2018
A Matter of Life(time) and Death journal August 2018
Molecular Lignin Solubility and Structure in Organic Solvents journal November 2020
Green Solvents in Biomass Processing journal July 2016
Synergetic Effects of Alcohol/Water Mixing on the Catalytic Reductive Fractionation of Poplar Wood journal October 2016
Estimation of Heat Transfer Coefficients for Biomass Particles by Direct Numerical Simulation Using Microstructured Particle Models in the Laminar Regime journal November 2016
Kinetic Studies of Lignin Solvolysis and Reduction by Reductive Catalytic Fractionation Decoupled in Flow-Through Reactors journal April 2018
Chemical and Structural Effects on the Rate of Xylan Hydrolysis during Dilute Acid Pretreatment of Poplar Wood journal February 2019
Automated Transformation of Lignin Topologies into Atomic Structures with LigninBuilder journal December 2018
Preserving Both Lignin and Cellulose Chemical Structures: Flow-Through Acid Hydrotropic Fractionation at Atmospheric Pressure for Complete Wood Valorization journal May 2019
Advances in Multiscale Modeling of Lignocellulosic Biomass journal February 2020
Aviation Gasoline: By Polymerization and Alkylation of Cracking Gases journal November 1942
Changes in the Structure of the Cellulose Fiber Wall during Dilute Acid Pretreatment in Populus Studied by 1 H and 2 H NMR journal October 2010
Biomass Particle Models with Realistic Morphology and Resolved Microstructure for Simulations of Intraparticle Transport Phenomena journal December 2014
Tests for Transport Limitations in Experimental Catalytic Reactors journal October 1971
Neural network Analysis of Selective CO Oxidation over Copper-Based Catalysts for Knowledge Extraction from Published Data in the Literature journal November 2011
Fractionation of Lignocellulosic Materials Using Ionic Liquids: Part 2. Effect of Particle Size on the Mechanisms of Fractionation journal February 2013
Prediction of Effectiveness Factor Using One-Dimensional Approximations for Complex Pellet Shapes and Abnormal Kinetics Expressions journal May 2013
Polymerization, a New Source of Gasoline journal September 1935
Propylene Polymerization: Under High Pressure and Temperature with and without Phosphoric Acid journal June 1936
Relation between Catalytic Activity and Size of Particle journal July 1939
Solid-Fluid Interactions in Fixed and Moving Beds Fixed Beds with Small Particles journal January 1956
Fixed Beds with Large Particles journal January 1956
Designing Laboratory Catalytic Reactors journal November 1964
Noncatalytic Heterogeneous Solid-Fluid Reaction Models journal September 1968
Oxidation of Phosphorus with Water at High Temperature and Pressure in the Presence of Alkali. The Production of Phosphorous Acid journal February 1935
One-Pot Catalytic Conversion of Cellulose and of Woody Biomass Solids to Liquid Fuels
  • Matson, Theodore D.; Barta, Katalin; Iretskii, Alexei V.
  • Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 133, Issue 35, p. 14090-14097 https://doi.org/10.1021/ja205436c
journal September 2011
Aromatic Monomers by in Situ Conversion of Reactive Intermediates in the Acid-Catalyzed Depolymerization of Lignin journal June 2015
Rationalization of the Synthesis of SBA-16: Controlling the Micro- and Mesoporosity journal September 2002
3D Electron Tomography of Pretreated Biomass Informs Atomic Modeling of Cellulose Microfibrils journal August 2013
Prediction of organic homolytic bond dissociation enthalpies at near chemical accuracy with sub-second computational cost journal May 2020
Measurement of moisture-dependent ion diffusion constants in wood cell wall layers using time-lapse micro X-ray fluorescence microscopy journal June 2020
Glycerol based solvents: synthesis, properties and applications journal January 2014
Design of low-cost ionic liquids for lignocellulosic biomass pretreatment journal January 2015
Organosolv pretreatment of plant biomass for enhanced enzymatic saccharification journal January 2016
Pretreatment and conversion of lignocellulose biomass into valuable chemicals journal January 2016
Chemicals from lignin: an interplay of lignocellulose fractionation, depolymerisation, and upgrading journal January 2018
Intensification studies of heterogeneous catalysts: probing and overcoming catalyst deactivation during liquid phase operation journal January 2017
Lignin depolymerization to monophenolic compounds in a flow-through system journal January 2017
Catalytic lignocellulose biorefining in n -butanol/water: a one-pot approach toward phenolics, polyols, and cellulose journal January 2018
Progress in understanding the four dominant intra-particle phenomena of lignocellulose pyrolysis: chemical reactions, heat transfer, mass transfer, and phase change journal January 2019
Rapid flow-through fractionation of biomass to preserve labile aryl ether bonds in native lignin journal January 2019
Continuous hydrogenolysis of acetal-stabilized lignin in flow journal January 2021
Ex situ upgrading of pyrolysis vapors over PtTiO 2 : extraction of apparent kinetics via hierarchical transport modeling journal January 2021
Predicting thermal excursions during in situ oxidative regeneration of packed bed catalytic fast pyrolysis catalyst journal January 2021
Top ten fundamental challenges of biomass pyrolysis for biofuels journal January 2012
Mesoscale flows in large aspect ratio simulations of turbulent compressible convection journal January 2005
Perspective: Fifty years of density-functional theory in chemical physics journal May 2014
Analysis of the Brinkman equation as a model for flow in porous media journal January 1987
Adversarial super-resolution of climatological wind and solar data journal July 2020
The sorption of monovalent cations onto norway spruce: Model studies using wood flour and LiCl solution journal December 2016
BlendMol: advanced macromolecular visualization in Blender journal November 2018
Low Mach number fluctuating hydrodynamics model for ionic liquids journal September 2020
Deep learning for in situ data compression of large turbulent flow simulations journal November 2020
Compressed Singular Value Decomposition for Image and Video Processing
  • Erichson, N. Benjamin; Brunton, Steven L.; Kutz, J. Nathan
  • 2017 IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision Workshop (ICCVW), 2017 IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision Workshops (ICCVW) https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCVW.2017.222
conference October 2017
Simulation exploration through immersive parallel planes conference March 2016
The SENSEI Generic In Situ Interface
  • Ayachit, Utkarsh; Whitlock, Brad; Wolf, Matthew
  • 2016 Second Workshop on In Situ Infrastructures for Enabling Extreme-Scale Analysis and Visualization (ISAV) https://doi.org/10.1109/ISAV.2016.013
conference November 2016
A Generative Model for Volume Rendering journal April 2019
Distributed and Collaborative Visualization journal June 2004
Biomass Recalcitrance: Engineering Plants and Enzymes for Biofuels Production journal February 2007
Formaldehyde stabilization facilitates lignin monomer production during biomass depolymerization journal October 2016
p4est : Scalable Algorithms for Parallel Adaptive Mesh Refinement on Forests of Octrees journal January 2011
High performance heterogeneous computing for collaborative visual analysis conference November 2015
ParaView Catalyst: Enabling In Situ Data Analysis and Visualization
  • Ayachit, Utkarsh; Bauer, Andrew; Geveci, Berk
  • Proceedings of the First Workshop on In Situ Infrastructures for Enabling Extreme-Scale Analysis and Visualization - ISAV2015 https://doi.org/10.1145/2828612.2828624
conference January 2015
Immersed Boundary Methods journal January 2005
Diffusion of tritiated water into water-saturated wood particles journal January 2006
Determination of the diffusion of monovalent cations into wood under isothermal conditions based on LiCl impregnation of Norway spruce journal July 2013
Threshold for ion movements in wood cell walls below fiber saturation observed by X-ray fluorescence microscopy (XFM) journal May 2015
Evolution of wood cell wall nanopore size distribution in the hygroscopic range journal May 2019
Limitations of Physics Informed Machine Learning for Nonlinear Two-Phase Transport in Porous Media journal January 2020
AMReX: a framework for block-structured adaptive mesh refinement journal May 2019
CFD Applied to Process Development in the Oil and Gas Industry – A Review journal August 2015
Three-dimensional pore structure visualization and characterization of paper using X-ray computed tomography journal January 2017
Energy Scaling Advantages of Resistive Memory Crossbar Based Computation and Its Application to Sparse Coding journal January 2016
VAPOR: A Visualization Package Tailored to Analyze Simulation Data in Earth System Science journal August 2019
Heterogeneous Catalyst Deactivation and Regeneration: A Review journal February 2015
Application of Artificial Neural Networks for Catalysis: A Review journal October 2017
Catalytic Oxidation of Lignin in Solvent Systems for Production of Renewable Chemicals: A Review journal June 2017