Monday, May 2, 2011: 3:00 PM
Grand Ballroom B, 2nd fl (Sheraton Seattle)
It has been discovered that certain Lewis acids can be used in aqueous phase reactions with excellent selectivity and yield for several given organic synthesis reactions. The goal of this research was to discover what the effect of adding relatively low concentrations of Lewis acid co-catalysts to the pretreatment slurry will have upon the ultimate yields of glucose after enzymatic hydrolysis. One exotic class of Lewis acids that has shown promising results are Lanthanide-series trifluoromethanesulfonates ((OTf)3’s) which have been studied in the Lewis acid pretreatment. The following Lewis acids have been studied La(OTf)3, FeCl3, AlCl3, and FeCl2. The conditions for the pretreatment are as follows; 140-160 oC, 1-10 mM Lewis acid concentration, 10 wt% corn stover solids loading, and 0.5 wt% sulfuric acid. Following pretreatment the remaining solids were analyzed for composition following NREL standard procedures. The enzymatic digestibility of all of the runs was also evaluated. The yield of xylan transferred from the solid fraction to the liquid fraction increased by between 2-7% when compared with control runs. Also, the yield of monomeric sugars after the enzymatic hydrolysis increased by up to 10%. The pretreatment runs were performed using an EZE-Seal reactor built by Autoclave Engineers that is steam jacketed and stirred for heating with a steam boiler. This reactor setup allows for fast heating and cooling rates while retaining the benefits of a closed system.