Hydrodynamic cavitation-assisted continuous pre-treatment of sugarcane bagasse for ethanol production: Effects of geometric parameters of the cavitation device

Author(s)

Hilares, Ruly Teran ^{[1, 2]} ; Dionizio, Rafaela Medeiros ^[1] ; Munoz, Salvador Sanchez ^[1] ; Prado, Carina Aline ^[1] ; de Sousa Junior, Ruy ^[3] ; da Silva, Silvio Silverio ^[1] ; Santos, Julio Cesar ^[1]

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Biotecnol, Escola Engn Lorena, BR-12602810 Lorena, SP - Brazil

^[2] UCSM, Lab Mat, San Jose S-N, Arequipa - Peru

^[3] Univ Fed Sao Carlos, Dept Engn Quim, Rod Washington Luis Km 235, BR-13565905 Sao Carlos, SP - Brazil

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: ULTRASONICS SONOCHEMISTRY; v. 63, MAY 2020.
• Web of Science Citations: 0

Abstract

For biotechnological conversion of lignocellulosic biomass, a pre-treatment step is required before enzymatic hydrolysis of carbohydrate fractions of the material, which is required to produce fermentable sugars for generation of ethanol or other products in a biorefinery. The most of the reported pre-treatment technologies are in batch operation mode, presenting some disadvantages as dead times in the process. In this context, hydrodynamic cavitation (HC)-assisted alkaline hydrogen peroxide (AHP) pre-treatment in continuous process was proposed for pre-treatment of sugarcane bagasse (SCB). The system was designed with a main reactor containing two devices to generate cavitation by passing liquid medium through orifice plates. For SCB pretreated in continuous process, 52.79, 34.31, 22.13 and 15.81 g of total reducing sugars (TRS) per 100 g of SCB were released in samples pretreated using orifice plates with a number of holes of 24 (d = 0.45 mm), 16 (d = 0.65 mm), 12 (d = 0.8 mm) and 8 (d = 1 mm), respectively. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools showed that 0.94 of vapor phase volume fraction and 0.19 of cavitation number were achieved at 31 m/s of throat velocity and upstream pressure of 350,000 Pa. By using pretreated SCB, 28.44 g of ethanol/L (84.31% of yield respect to theoretical value) was produced by immobilized Scheffersomyces stipitis NRRL-Y7124 in a simultaneous hydrolysis and fermentation process at high solid loading (16% S/L). Thus, HC-assisted process was proved as a promising technology for valorization of lignocellulosic biomass. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 17/11086-4 - Development of innovative approaches for the main stages of 2G ethanol production: continuous pretreatment using hydrodynamic cavitation and evaluation of SSCF process with interconnected reactors
• Grantee: Ruly Teran Hilares
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• FAPESP's process: 16/10636-8 - From the cell factory to the Biodiesel-Bioethanol integrated biorefinery: a systems approach applied to complex problems in micro and macroscales
• Grantee: Roberto de Campos Giordano
• Support Opportunities: Program for Research on Bioenergy (BIOEN) - Thematic Grants
• FAPESP's process: 16/23758-4 - Production of ethanol and pullulan assisted by unconventional methods in sugarcane bagasse biorefineries: hydrodynamic cavitation reactors and use of visible light with different wavelengths
• Grantee: Júlio César dos Santos
• Support Opportunities: Program for Research on Bioenergy (BIOEN) - Regular Program Grants