Water Prehydrolysis of Birch Wood Chips and Meal in Batch and Flow-through Systems: A Comparative Evaluation

Marc Borrega, Herbert Sixta

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Water prehydrolysis can be used as a pretreatment to extract hemicelluloses and lignin from biomass prior to its conversion into value-added products. In this study, the effects of operational conditions such as reactor system, flow, particle size, and solids content during prehydrolysis of birch wood are compared, using the wood yield as indicator of pretreatment intensity. The results show that both batch and flow-through (FT) systems are equally effective in removing the carbohydrates from the wood. Increasing flow and decreasing particle size and solids content, however, facilitate the removal of lignin. This increased delignification is partly related to a lower extent of condensation reactions. A FT system is also advantageous for the recovery of the extracted sugars because degradation reactions are minimized. Furthermore, by applying elevated temperatures and short retention times, the sugars concentration in the hydrolysate might be only somewhat higher than that in a batch system.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)6075-6084
Number of pages10
JournalIndustrial and Engineering Chemistry Research
Volume54
Issue number23
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 Jun 2015
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

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