Identification of a new severity parameter for the hydrothermal pretreatment in multiple stages reactors in transient operation

• Grant number: 17/06236-7
• Support Opportunities: Program for Research on Bioenergy (BIOEN) - Regular Program Grants
• Start date: October 01, 2017
• End date: September 30, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Mechanical Engineering - Transport Phenomena
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Seleghim Júnior
• Grantee: Paulo Seleghim Júnior
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Cristiano Bigonha Tibirica ; Jonas Laerte Ansoni ; Patrícia Aparecida Santiago

Abstract

The production of biofuels and chemical compunds from Lignocellulosic biomass (2G) represents an alternative of great potential, overall due to its synergy with the production of food. However, despite the experience accumulated with the first 2G industrial plants in operation for some years, the integration of the many processing steps is still the source of strong inefficiencies and/or dysfunctionalities. Recent studies show that it is advantageous to subdivide the hydrothermal pretreatment (HTP) in distinct stages, based on the fact that the main biomass components have different recalcitrance levels. Although this results in smaller and less costly equipment, the intrinsic transient nature of the multiple stages HTP creates design and operation complications. In specific, the traditional severity parameter is not adequate to this processing strategy because, depending on the temporal variation of temperature, one may obtain very different results. In other words, the final results of the multiple stages HTP may be completely different even though the severity is rigorously the same. Within this context the main objective of this work is the identification of a new severity parameter, suitable to transient processes, through the application of numerical mathematical variable clustering techniques. To this end, a pilot reactor will be designed and constructed in which extensive experimental tests will be executed. (AU)