Dilute Acid Pretreatment of Hardwood and Softwood Using Different Laboratory Scale Reactors

Pretreatment is a necessary element in bioconversion of lignocellulosics to fuels and chemicals. Although various forms of chemical pretreatment of cellulosic materials have been proposed, their effectiveness varies depending on the treatment conditions and substrate. Hence optimal pretreatment must be established for each substrate. Effective screening of different methods and substrates depends on understanding the differences resulting from different types of lab-scale equipment used to carry out the experiments. This study was initiated to determine the relative performance of different laboratory scale pretreatment systems. Dilute acid pretreatment was performed on three scales: in 10 mL bath-immersed batch tubes, in a 100mL Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE Dionex Corp.) and in a 2 L agitated reactor. Substrates tested included northeast mixed hardwood and Loblolly pine. We present results of the mass balance and enzymatic hydrolysis performance from the different scale pretreatments.