Hydrolysis of Wheat Straw Using Sulphuric Acid

Abstract

The kinetics of cellulose and hemicellulose hydrolysis of wheat straw was studied using both isothermal and non-isothermal techniques in a batch Parr reactor. Reactions were carried out between 100 and 2100C and product sugars were analyzed using a Bio-Rad HPX-87P liquid chromatographic column. A simple first order series reaction model was used for both cellulose and hemicellulose hydrolysis reactions and kinetic parameters were obtained for the Arrhenius rate equations for three different sulphuric acid concentrations (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5%). To minimize the amount of experimental data required and to achieve a unique solution to the kinetic parameters, the technique of combining isothermal and non-isothermal reaction data was studied. Activation energies remained constant with acid concentration but the pre-exponential factors showed an increase with acid concentration.