A reconfigurable fluidic reactor for intensification of hydrolysis at mild conditions

Abstract

Creating a fluidic system with an induced electrical field is regarded as an innovative, eco-friendly practice for the hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass at mild conditions. A multi-series, reconfigurable fluidic reactor was developed based on the transformer concept for the efficient hydrolysis of sugarcane bagasse via the interconversion of magnetic and electrical energy. A secondary coil comprised of a mixture of sulfuric acid (or other metal electrolyte) and the sample in continuous flow was exposed to an induced electric field at 400–700Hz to accelerate the hydrolysis. The results showed that using an induced electric field to assist hydrolysis is indeed beneficial in the production of reducing sugar (RS). The total reducing sugar (TRS) yield is positively impacted by the excitation voltage but is negatively impacted by voltage frequency and the sample solution impedance. The hydrolysis efficiency improves as the number of reactors increases in both series and parallel modes of the system. The mode of connection of the reactors has varying effect on the TRS yield owing to differences in the equivalent impedance, output power, and load power factor. Increased number of secondary coil turns also improves hydrolysis efficiency under the same input power and primary coil turns and thus increasing the TRS yield. Induced-electric-field-assisted hydrolysis (IEFAH) substantially enhances the yield (by 756% approximately, at 300V, 400Hz in a 4-series reactors for 24h) compared to continuous flow heating hydrolysis (CFHH) at mild conditions (50°C and 1% H2SO4). The proposed fluidic system combined with an induced electric field shows remarkable potential as a green technology for the efficient hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomasses without the use of metal electrodes.