Evaluation of the acid pretreatment of agroindustrial waste assisted by high-intensity ultrasound for further bioethanol production

Abstract

The pre-treatment of agroindustrial wastes is one of the most complex steps of their conversion process into bioethanol. This step consists basically of applying physical or chemical treatments in biomass in order to obtain carbohydrates partially hydrolyzed and more accessible for future action of enzymes and microorganisms. In this sense, the use of high-intensity ultrasound has been shown as a technology with an interesting potential, in combination with conventional methods, to enhance the mass and energy transfer processes. In the present study, it was characterized agroindustrial residues such as cassava bagasse, peanut shells and artichoke residues as potential materials for the production of bioethanol after acid pre-treatment with and without the application of ultrasound. Thus, the different biomass/acid solutions systems were characterized according to their thermophysical properties (density, specific heat, thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity) and rheological behavior. The acoustic fields generated in these different systems during ultrasound application were also characterized by a calorimetric method. Then, the ultrasonic intensity obtained in each case was related to the termophysical and reological properties. Subsequently, the kinetics of reducing and total sugar release and the structural changes produced in the suspensions considered during the pretreatments in acid solutions with conventional agitation or assisted by ultrasound were determined. The results obtained indicated that suspensions with higher acid concentration and higher solids content showed lower heat transfer capacity, given by the higher values for specific heat, thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity. The same suspensions presented higher values of density and viscosity, which leads to greater resistance to flow. This fact was attributed, not only to the high viscosity, but also to the appearance of non-Newtonian rheological behavior as showed by the fitting of Herschel-Bulkley model. In these cases, the suspensions containing peanut shells or cassava bagasse showed noticeable yield stress and shear-thinning behavior above solids concentration of 8% and 6%, respectively. Temperature also had a significant effect on thermophysical properties. Although the effect was less intense than the other variables, the increase in temperature made easier the heat and momentum transfer. The increase of solids and acid concentration in the suspensions produced a reduction of the acoustic intensity generated during sonication. The same fact was observed when the distance from the probe where measurements were taken increased, indicating the occurrence of attenuation of acoustic energy. The conversion yield of electrical energy into acoustic energy could be improved by increasing the nominal power and/or reducing the concentration of solids and acid, while the attenuation factor of the acoustic intensity remained constant at 0.021 cm-1 for the conditions studied. The acoustic intensity data correlated well with the physical properties previously determined, as showed the high correlation coefficients obtained. At the same acoustic power, the acoustic intensity was increased in suspensions with low density and viscosity. On the other hand, higher acoustic intensities were found for suspensions with higher specific heat, thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity. The ultrasound application was efficient to accelerate the sugar dissolution process in aqueous medium when compared to the conventional agitation. In addition, the ultrasound was efficient for hydrolyzing the biomass under milder conditions of acid and temperature than those conventionally used, mainly in the case of the diluted suspensions in solids studied. This could be observed both by the reducing and total sugar release experimental data as well as by the fitting of the Naik model. On the other hand, greater effects were observed in the biomass microstructure (cont.)