Pretreatment scale up of switchgrass: lessons learned

Biomass pretreatment is a critical step in the biochemical conversion of lignocellulosic feedstocks to ethanol. The goal of pretreatment is to break down or remove lignin and hemicellulose to allow better access of hydrolytic enzymes to the cellulose structure. Pretreatment is often thought of as the most expensive process in lignocellulose conversion to biofuels. Similarly, pretreatment likely contains the greatest potential for efficiency and process cost improvements. Because of pretreatments importance to biofuels production, we wish to highlight how pretreatment scale up from lab to commercial reactors can be accomplished. In this presentation, we will focus on key aspects of feedstock storage, milling and handling, and demo scale optimization of low solids dilute acid pretreatment of switchgrass.