Abstract
Dilute acid pretreatment can be an effective and traditional method to make raw biomass feedstock more suitable for biomass-to-ethanol conversion. Four types of biomass feedstock including switchgrass, sorghum, prairie cordgrass, and rice straw were tested by applying dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment under controlled conditions for degrading the lignin component. This research studied the kinetic rates and activation energy for both heat degradation and acid degradation. Simple kinetic expressions have been proposed and rate constants determined from the tests in order to describe and predict the biomass weight loss during the heated dilute acid pretreatment process. It was found that a zero-order heat degradation rate coupled with a first-order acid degradation rate can adequately predict the overall biomass degradation process.
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