Acid pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass: Steady state and dynamic analysis

A study of the reactor design and of the selection of the operating conditions for the dilute acid pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass is presented, using modeling and simulation tools to improve the process efficiency. The acid pretreatment of corn stover in a continuous process is considered as a case study. The results, which are presented in terms of yields of fermentable sugars, reaction times, and bioethanol production, show the potential of the methodology for improving the process efficiency, e.g., high conversions and short reaction times. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 7th European Congress of Chemical Engineering-7 and 19th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering CHISA 2010 (Prague, Czech Republic 8/28/2010-9/1/2010).