Optimization of Two stage concentrated acid hydrolysis Process of biofuel for both sulphuric and hydrochloric acid

Abstract

The conversion of biomass to soluble sugars for biofuel production has received great interest to be used as an alternative and renewable source of energy. Hemicellulose biomass is potentially applied to contribute to biofuel production to minimize greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. In this work, two stages concentrated acid hydrolysis process was used for the hydrolysis of biomass as a biological resource. Both sulfuric and hydrochloric acids were used and applied by the same concentration (weight by weight) for the hydrolysis process. The effect of acid type on the two stages concentrated acid hydrolysis of biomass has been investigated. The results revealed that hydrochloric acid is more effective than sulfuric acid. In the first stage, the results showed that, increasing the sulfuric acid concentration from (10 to 30 %) (w/w), resulted in enhancing xylose concentration from 6.0 to 9.0 mg/ml compared to 9.0 to 12.0 mg/ml in the case of hydrochloric acid (10 to 30 %). In addition, the second stage results showed that glucose concentration increased from 2.0 to 5.2 mg/ml and xylose was slightly increased from 1.8 to 2.1 mg/ml, using sulfuric acid (20-30%) and total dissolved sugars increased from 4.1 to 8.0 mg/ml. while in the case of hydrochloric acid (20-30%) for the hydrolysis of biomass total dissolved sugars enhanced from 7.3 to 10.0 mg/ml. The results confirmed that both acids are comparable for the biomass hydrolysis process with better enhancements (1.25 - 1.7 times) when applying hydrochloric acid.