Monday, May 2, 2011
Grand Ballroom C-D, 2nd fl (Sheraton Seattle)
Conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fermentable sugars for renewable fuels production remains a formidable challenge for the economically feasible operation of bio-refineries. An improved understanding of the conversion processes and the development of predictive models will help in overcoming this challenge. In this work, structurally based kinetic models, based on population-balance equations, are developed, which consider the heterogeneous spatial distribution of reactants within the biomass particles (e.g. xylan, cellulose, and lignin), the spectrum of particle sizes present in the reacting system, the occurrence of particle fragmentation processes, and potential mass-transfer limitations present during dilute-acid pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass. Quantitative relationships, between the composition and structure of a given feedstock and the measured chemical and structural changes resulting from pretreatment processes, can be established using these models. Such models can also aid in the interpretation of experimental kinetic data, elucidation of potential rate-limiting phenomena, and scale-up of pretreatment processes.