Identification and Development of a Clarifying Solid-Liquid Separator to Enable Continuous Enzymatic Saccharification

Identification and development of a clarifying solid-liquid separator to enable continuous enzymatic saccharification

Birendra Adhikari and John Pellegrino

University of Colorado-Boulder

The lignocellulosic biomass found on the plants is the most abundant organic polymer in the world. Although it is that abundant, a proper and useful method of using this biomass for human use is yet to be fully implemented. Lignocellulose can be enzymatically hydrolyzed into their component sugars. These sugar components can be used on various applications, such as making alcohols like ethanol, propanol, butanol, etc. The separation techniques available to extract sugar from lignocellulose has not yet been commercial and still in the phase of research and development. In this work, the feasibility of membrane-based separation of sugar is studied by designing and implementing a membrane reactor and also, technoeconomic analysis of the system is done by using an excel-based model to get insight on how these processes are viable economically.