<br/>Today, it is important to seek to develop processes and equipment at a pilot level for their subsequent industrial scale-up in the fractionation of lignocellulosic biomass in the production of biofuels and compounds with high added value. Hydrothermal pretreatment in which lignocellulosic material is pretreated only with compressed water/steam at high temperatures is based on the solubilization and depolymerization of hemicellulose. In our research group, the design and operation of a pilot-scale tubular steam explosion batch reactor has been developed for the fractionation of biomass in terms of biorefinery. The design of the SE reactor was developed in three main stages: 1) The conceptual engineering design; 2) Basic engineering design and 3) the detailed engineering design. Also, the agave bagasse is a lignocellulosic biomass with great potential in Mexico, and it is mainly composed by cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the scale-up strategies of operation for hydrothermal pretreatment and different operational conditions for enzymatic hydrolysis at solid pretreated loadings on hydrothermally pretreated agave bagasse to produce high concentrations of glucose. Pretreatments were carried out using a solid/liquid ratio of 1:10 (w/v) under isothermal regimen, with a temperature of 194°C and residence time of 30 min, conditions that produced a concentration of cellulose of 46.5% on dry basis. Moreover, a horizontal bioreactor was designed for enzyme saccharification at high solid loadings [25% (w/v)]. The bioreactor improved mixing efficiency, with cellulose conversions up to 98% (195.6 g/L at 72 h). Hydrothermal pretreatment resulted to be an effective method for the fractionation of agave bagasse into its principal components, providing a cellulose rich solid susceptible to enzymatic attack.

Operation and scale-up of tubular hydrothermal reactor for lignocellulosic biomass fractionation under biorefinery concept

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.