Full text
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| Author(s): |
Arturo Gonzalez Quiroga
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | Campinas, SP. |
| Institution: | Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Engenharia Química |
| Defense date: | 2009-10-12 |
| Examining board members: |
Rubens Maciel Filho;
Carlos Eduardo Vaz Rossell;
Antonio Maria Francisco Luiz José Bonomi
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| Advisor: | Rubens Maciel Filho; Aline Carvalho da Costa |
| Abstract | |
For ever a century, the main source of fuel and chemicals for human society has come from fossil resources, which are limited and concentrated in a few regions of the world. Biomass, as the only source of renewable carbon, shows great promise for largescale economical production of renewable transportation and fuel chemicals. In the last decade the bioethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass via, enzymatic hydrolysis, has been intensively studied at laboratory level. Continuous reactors in which the cellulose and hemicellulose fractions of lignocellulosic substrates convert to reducing sugars (which are fermented to bioethanol) are the theme of this dissertation. The main issues considered are kinetics, contacting pattern and fluid dynamics, alternative configurations of continuous reactors, and continuous operating strategies with respect to substrate and enzyme. The most recent kinetic models for the enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass, useful for reactor design, were reviewed and classified based on the number of reaction considered. Regarding to reactor design, the main factors that should be include a kinetic model are adsorption of enzymes on cellulose and lignin, inhibition of enzyme by glucose and cellobiose, substrate reactivity and enzyme deactivation. A kinetic model of a single reaction was fitted to experimental profiles of glucose and xylose obtained by the enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated of sugarcane bagasse. This kinetic model differs of previous models in that it predicts xylose concentration based on glucose concentration. This kinetic model is a useful in the absence of experimental data on enzyme adsorption and substrate features others than concentration. The fluid dynamic behavior of biomass slurries during enzymatic hydrolysis is very complex due to the wide particle size distribution, the extremes shapes of particles and the significant rheological changes of the slurry with the progress of the enzymatic hydrolysis. This works reviewed the fluid dynamic behavior of fiber pulp suspensions and settling slurries because the fluid dynamic behavior of biomass through continuous reactors can be framed between these two limiting situations. In addition, a computational fluid dynamic model was developed to asses the fluid dynamic behavior of biomass slurries in tubular and baffled tubular reactors, motivated by the benefits of tubular reactors to carry out the enzymatic hydrolysis in terms of lower reaction volume and lower agitation requirements. On the other hand, the micromixing behavior of the flowing material was framed between two limiting situations: an incoming material that is broken up into discrete clumps in which the reaction proceed independently as in a batch reactor, and an incoming material that immediately comes into intimate contact with other fluid elements at molecular level. Conversions in continuous reactors corresponding to the above extreme states of micromixing were obtained. The continuous reactor considered were stirred tanks reactors in series, tubular reactors, and combination between them. As biomass adsorbs water, this may cause the bulk to become unsaturated at initial substrate concentration higher than 10% w/w, approximately. Operating the enzymatic hydrolysis in a distributed feeding mode by adding fresh substrate and enzyme at subsequent stirred tank reactors was proposed as an alternative to increase the volumetric productivity of reactors. A reactors configuration consisting of stirred tank reactors in series with continuous distributed feeding of substrate and enzyme, followed by a tubular reactor allow increasing the volumetric productivity of the reaction system overcoming mixing limitations and lowering the required reaction volume. It should be noted that this work is exploratory and that there are not major reports in open literature about the design and scale-up of continuous reactors for enzymatic hydrolysis. Some alternative continuous reactors, as well as modeling approaches for reactor design, are suggested. Of paramount importance are experiments to elucidate relevant aspects as reutilization of enzymes by recirculation of readsorption, adsorption of enzymes at high substrate concentrations (>10% w/w), and the relation between rheological properties of slurries with the extent of saccharification. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 07/05981-9 - Modeling, Simulation and Analysis of Performance of a Tubular Reactor with Internal Angular Baffles For Enzymatic Bagasse Hydrolysis of Sugar Cane |
| Grantee: | Arturo González Quiroga |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Master |