Predicting Hemicellulose Hydrolysis in Batch, Flowthrough, and Mixed Batch Reactors by Coupled Mass Transfer and Reaction Models

摘要

The uncatalyzed hydrolysis and removal of xylan from corn stover is significantly enhanced when operation is changed from batch to flowthrough conditions, and the increase in hemicellulose removal with flow rate is inconsistent with predictions by widely-used first order kinetic models. Thus, it appears that mass transfer or other physical effects could influence the hydrolysis rate, and two simple models reported in the literature for other applications were adapted to investigate whether incorporation of mass transfer into the kinetics could explain xylan removal in both batch and continuous flowthrough reactors on a more consistent basis. It was found that a simple leaching model and a pore diffusion/leaching model could describe batch and flowthrough data with similar accuracy to conventional batch models and could provide a more rational explanation for changes in performance with flow rate.