Kinetics of acid hydrolysis of corn stover

Abstract

A small-scale steam-injection plug-flow reactor was developed and employed to obtain kinetic parameters under experimental conditions of potential commercial interest. Using dilute H 2SO 4 as a catalyst, glucose yields are maximized at short residence times (e.g. 6 sec) and high temperatures (e.g. 240°C). At such short residence times, glucose decomposition reactions become important and the glucose kinetic parameters were, therefore, determined in a separate study. In this study, these values were imposed in the determination of the kinetic parameters used to represent the hydrolysis of the glucan in corn stover.