Mar 01, 2016 |
Improving biorefineries with bubbles
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(Nanowerk News) A team of researchers from Japan's Tohoku University has developed a new method for the pretreatment of organic material, or "biomass", which could lead to more efficient production of biofuels and biochemicals (Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, "Hydrodynamic cavitation reactor for efficient pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass").
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Pretreating biomass improves the formation of sugars that are then used to develop biofuels and biochemicals. But current pretreatment processes leave much to be desired.
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Researchers have developed a new method for the pretreatment of organic material, such as maize plants, which could lead to more efficient production of biofuels and biochemicals.
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The new method involves crushing the leaves and stalks of maize plants and placing the resulting powder in a solution of sodium percarbonate (SP). The product is then passed through a "hydrodynamic (HD) cavitation system". When it passes through a constriction in the system, bubbles form and then collapse due to a pressure change after the constriction. This "cavitation" - the formation, growth and subsequent collapse of microbubbles - produces high, localized energy that disintegrates the cellulose fibres in the biomass.
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The team previously developed a pretreatment system that involves applying ultrasonic (US) energy to an SP-treated biomass solution. This also results in cavitation and improved disintegration of cellulose fibres. In their study, published in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, they compared the efficiency of pretreating biomass with HD-SP and US-SP systems.
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Biorefining - a technique for producing fuels and chemicals from biomass - involves the hydrolysis of the cellulose in plant materials to form fermentable sugars, which are then treated with genetically engineered microbes and chemical catalysts to produce biofuels.
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The team found that the HD-SP system was even more efficient than the US-SP system in producing fermentable sugars. They also found that having a smaller constriction in the HD-SP system was more effective in biomass treatment.
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Because an HD cavitation reactor can be scaled up easily for high production capacities and requires much lower energy input than a US cavitation reactor, the team believes the HD-SP system shows promise for the pre-treatment of plant biomass.
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They recommend further study of other factors - such as the SP concentration and pre-treatment temperature and time - in order to further improve the system.
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