Abstract
Pretreatment is an inevitable high energy consuming process en route to biofuel production which alters the recalcitrant structures of lignocellulosic biomass. An attempt has been made to pretreat the areca nut husk fibre using dilute sulphuric acid. The Taguchi robust design method of optimisation (L9 orthogonal array) was applied to this acid catalyzed pretreatment process. Cellulose crystallinity is directly proportional to the degree of enzymatic hydrolysis of any kind of cellulosic substrate; the present study considers it as an index to optimise the process parameters. The study showed that the sulphuric acid concentration plays the major role during the pretreatment of areca nut husk (57% contribution) followed by the duration of operation (24.98% contribution) and solid loading (14.3% contribution). The optimal factors obtained from the design of experiments were further validated using the experimental results.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.