(CSF) Dilute Sulfuric Acid Pretreatment of Corn Stover in a Pilot-Scale Reactor.pdfVIP

Dilute Sulfuric Acid Pretreatment of Corn Stover in a Pilot-Scale Reactor: Investigation of Yields, Kinetics, and Solids Enzymatic Digestibilities Daniel J. Schell, Jody Farmer, Millie Newman, and James D. McMillan National Bioenergy Center National Renewable Energy Laboratory Golden, CO Introduction ? Dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment of corn stover was performed in a continuous pilot-scale reactor ? Data was collected on xylose hydrolysis yields and enzymatic digestibilities of the pretreated cellulosic solids ? The xylose yield data was used to calculate kinetic rate parameters for a biphasic xylan hydrolysis model incorporating formation of intermediate xylo-oligomers Materials and Methods ? Corn stover – Used approximately 9 month old stover that was tub-ground and washed and dried to 10% moisture ? Analytical – Performed solids compositional analysis of raw and pretreated solids – Liquor ? Measured concentration of monomeric and total sugars, acetic acid, furfural, and HMF by HPLC; measured pH – Measured insoluble solids in the pretreated slurry ? Enzymatic digestibility – SSF was performed on the washed pretreated solids at 6% cellulose loading, 15 FPU/g cellulose enzyme loading, 32°C – Calculated cellulose conversion from ethanol yield results Pretreatment ? 4 1 pretreatments runs at a variety of conditions were conducted in a continuous 1 dry ton/d pilot- scale reactor see flow diagram ? Pretreatment conditions – 165-183°C – 3-12 min – 0.5-1.4% w/w nominal acid concentration – 20% w/w total reactor solids concentration Pretreatment Experimental Protocol ? Steady state operating conditions were established and then samples were taken; data acquisition system collected sensor data every 30s ? Samples taken – Raw feedstock for moisture – Pretreated slurry – Vapor vent streams ? Calculations – Xylan hydrolysis yields monomeric and oligomeric xylose, furfural, unconverted xylan were calculated from stream composit