Hemicellulose and Cellulose Hydrolysis for Butanol Fuel Production

Abstract

The process of extracting sugars from cellulosic materials in a high pressure and high temperature reactor was studied to maximize the production of sugars to use in the butanol fermentation process. The addition of chemicals was not used in this study; the components were wood based and water. The wood based materials used in the laboratory research were maple and sycamore. The research consisted of maximizing the amount of dissolved cellulosic material, by comparing the types of woods dissolved, comparing the temperatures and time at which the cellulosic material was dissolved, and recycling the liquor to maximize the amount of dissolved material. The laboratory research showed that the optimum combination of time and temperature needed to obtain the optimum dissolved material was 60 minutes at 250°C. It was also concluded that by recycling the liquor, the total dissolved solids for the three extraction runs was 18.85 grams, 53.96% of the solids were dissolved into the liquor.