Particle morphology characterization and manipulation in biomass slurries and the effect on rheological properties and enzymatic conversion

Quantitative correlation analysis between particle liquefaction and saccharification through dynamic changes of slurry rheological behavior and particle characteristics during high-solid enzymatic hydrolysis of sugarcane bagasse

This study identified the intrinsic relationships among slurry rheology, particle characteristics, and lignocellulosic liquefaction/saccharification based on correlation analysis and principal component analysis during the hydrolysis of sugarcane bagasse pretreated by deep eutectic solvents (DES) and mechanical milling (MM). The DES-MM pretreated lignocellulosic slurry (20% solids) exhibited high apparent viscosity of 1.4 × 104 Pa·s and shear stress of 929.0 Pa under steady state. Glucose production had a negative linear correlation with slurry viscosity (R2, 0.69-0.97), whereas its correlation with yield stress (R2, 0.85-0.98) depended on the particle liquefaction rate. The availability of free water provided a major contribution to improving slurry rheology. However, the size reduction of submillimeter particles and the changes in particle hydrophilicity during liquefaction were not significantly correlated with rheological changes. Various interrelated particle characteristics and rheological changes were integrated into two simple principal variables to predict glucose production with a high R2 of 0.96.

Effects of Mixing and Particle Size on the Kinetics and Dynamics of Enzymatically Treated Cotton Cellulose (MCC) in Continuous Flow Reactor

Enzymatic hydrolysis (EH) of cellulosic biomass needs tremendous technological advancement so as to efficiently convert cellulosic biomass into renewable fuels and commodity chemicals. Therefore, development of highly improved process engineering techniques is inevitable to reduce the processing cost of the fluids in the reactor. In this investigation, effect of mixing and particle size on the EH of microcrystalline cotton cellulose (MCC) has been investigated by using a spatially averaged low-dimensional two-mode mixing (TMM) model. The model simulations were carried out for the average particle sizes of MCC ranging from 0.78 to 25.52 μm and mixing speed of η → 0 (very high) to η → 1000 (very low). The effects of mixing and particle size on the formation of glucose and reducing sugar (RS) have been quantified by exploiting the rigorous multistep reaction kinetics and TMM model. To access the bond-breaking ability, its effects on the degree of polymerization (DP) was also analyzed. The results deduced that increase in mixing limitations and reduction in particle size imparts a significant increase in glucose and RS yield while decreasing the DP drastically. Thus, our simulations reveal that while η → 1000 economizes the process by reducing the energy requirements, reduction in particle size can be beneficial for reducing the residence time in the depolymerization of MCC to fuels and chemicals.

Advances and perspectives on mass transfer and enzymatic hydrolysis in the enzyme-mediated lignocellulosic biorefinery: A review

Enzymatic hydrolysis is a critical process for the cellulase-mediated lignocellulosic biorefinery to produce sugar syrups that can be converted into a whole range of biofuels and biochemicals. Such a process operating at high-solid loadings (i.e., scarcely any free water or roughly ≥ 15% solids, w/w) is considered more economically feasible, as it can generate a high sugar concentration at low operation and capital costs. However, this approach remains restricted and incurs "high-solid effects", ultimately causing the lower hydrolysis yields with increasing solid loadings. The lack of available water leads to a highly viscous system with impaired mixing that exhibits strong transfer resistance and reaction limitation imposed on enzyme action. Evidently, high-solid enzymatic hydrolysis involves multi-scale mass transfer and multi-phase enzyme reaction, and thus requires a synergistic perspective of transfer and biotransformation to assess the interactions among water, biomass components, and cellulase enzymes. Porous particle characteristics of biomass and its interface properties determine the water form and distribution state surrounding the particles, which are summarized in this review aiming to identify the water-driven multi-scale/multi-phase bioprocesses. Further aided by the cognition of rheological behavior of biomass slurry, solute transfer theories, and enzyme kinetics, the coupling effects of flow-transfer-reaction are revealed under high-solid conditions. Based on the above basic features, this review lucidly explains the causes of high-solid hydrolysis hindrances, highlights the mismatched issues between transfer and reaction, and more importantly, presents the advanced strategies for transfer and reaction enhancements from the viewpoint of process optimization, reactor design, as well as enzyme/auxiliary additive customization.

The Use of Wood Pellets in the Production of High Quality Biocarbon Materials

Biomass is one of the most important sources of renewable energy. One of the most widely used biomass biofuels is wood pellets. It is an economical, homogeneous and easy-to-use raw material. Biomass is used to generate low-emission energy utilizing the pyrolysis process. Pyrolysis allows for higher energy efficiency with the use of commonly available substrates. This thesis presents the results of research on the possibility of using the pyrolysis process to produce high-energy biocarbons from wood pellets. Data on basic energy parameters and explosivity of biocarbon dust were compiled as criteria for the attractiveness of the solution in terms of energy utility. The research used pellets made of oak, coniferous, and mixed sawdust, which were subjected to a pyrolysis process with varying temperature and time parameters. Carbon, ash, nitrogen, hydrogen, volatile substances, heavy metals, durability and calorific value of the tested materials were carried out. The highest increase in calorific value was determined to be 63% for biocarbons obtained at 500 ℃ and a time of 15 min, compared with the control sample. The highest calorific value among all analyzed materials was obtained from coniferous pellet biocarbon at 31.49 MJ kg⁻¹. Parameters such as maximum explosion pressure, Pmax, maximum pressure increase over time, (dp/dt)max, and explosion rates, Kst max, were also analyzed. It was noted that biomass pyrolysis, which was previously pelletized, improved the energy parameters of the fuel and did not increase the risk class of dust explosion. The lowest and highest recorded values of Kst max for the analyzed materials were 76.53 and 94.75 bar s⁻¹, respectively. The study concluded that the process used for processing solid biofuels did not affect the increase in the danger of dust explosion. The results presented in this article form the basis for further research to obtain detailed knowledge of the safety principles of production, storage, transport and use of these new fuels.

Effect of the Pyrolysis Process Applied to Waste Branches Biomass from Fruit Trees on the Calorific Value of the Biochar and Dust Explosivity

The article discusses the findings related to the calorific value as well as the explosion and combustion parameters of dust from the raw biomass of fruit trees, i.e., apple, cherry, and pear branches, and from biochars produced using this type of biomass during pyrolysis processes conducted under various conditions. The plant biomass was thermally processed at 400, 450, or 500 °C for a duration of 5, 10, or 15 min. The study aimed to identify the calorific value of the biomass obtained from waste produced in orchards and to estimate the explosion hazard during the processing of such materials and during the storage of the resulting solid fuels. Tests were conducted to assess the total contents of carbon, ash, nitrogen, hydrogen, and volatile substances as well as the calorific value. The findings show a significant effect of the thermal transformation of fruit tree branches on the calorific value of the biochars that were produced. It was found that the mean calorific value of all of the biochars was increased by 62.24% compared to the non-processed biomass. More specifically, the mean calorific values of the biochars produced from apple, cherry, and pear branches amounted to 27.90, 28.75, and 26.84 MJ kg−1, respectively. The maximum explosion pressure Pmax measured for the dust from the biomass and for the biochars was in the range 7.56–7.8 and 7.95–11.72 bar, respectively. The maximum rate of pressure rose over time (dp/dt)max in the case of the dust from the biomass, which was in the range of 274.77–284.97 bar s−1, and the dust from biochar amounted to 282.05–353.41 bar s−1. The explosion index Kst max measured for non-processed biomass and biochars was found to range from 74.46 to 77.23 and from 76.447 to 95.77 bar s−1, respectively. It was also shown that a change in the temperature and duration of the pyrolysis process affected the quality of the biochars that were obtained. The findings show that pyrolysis, as a method of plant biomass processing, positively affects the calorific value of the products and does not lead to an increased risk of explosion during the treatment and storage of such materials. It is necessary, however, to continue research on biomass processing in order to develop practices that adequately ensure safety during the production of novel fuels.

Analysis of the Effect of the Biomass Torrefaction Process on Selected Parameters of Dust Explosivity

This article presents the findings of a study investigating the explosion and combustion parameters of dust from the raw biomass of wheat straw and energy willow and from the products of biomass torrefaction generated at temperatures ranging from 220 to 300 °C. Agricultural waste and energy crops and their modifications, e.g., in the torrefaction process, did not find a place in explosive risk research, which the authors decided to present in their work. The study was designed to estimate explosion hazard during the processing of the materials into fuels and during the storage process. The measurements recorded a maximum explosion pressure P_max in the case of dust from biomass ranging from 7.2 to 7.3 bar and for dust from torrefied materials amounting to 7.5–9.2 bar, and a maximum rate of pressure rise over time (dp/dt)_max in raw biomass ranging from 201.4 to 261.3 bar/s and in torrefied materials amounting to 209.6–296.6 bar/s. The estimated explosion index K_stmax for raw biomass was 55–72 m*bar/s and for torrefied materials was in the range from 57 to 81 m*bar/s. In the results, the authors present values for specific types of fuel which differ significantly depending on the type of biomass. The research findings show that the torrefaction process used in fuel production is not associated with a significantly greater risk of explosion and the materials obtained may safely be used as an alternative to conventional solid fuels. Given the growing interest in the use of biomass and in the variety of biomass processing methods for energy-related purposes, it seems there is a need for research to develop appropriate guidelines and for effective practices to be introduced in the energy industry in order to ensure the safety of the processes used in the production of novel fuels especially in small installations converting these materials into more efficient energy material.

Biomass Grinding Process Optimization Using Response Surface Methodology and a Hybrid Genetic Algorithm

Biomass could be a key source of renewable energy. Agricultural waste products, such as corn stover, provide a convenient means to replace fossil fuels, such as coal, and a large amount of feedstock is currently available for energy consumption in the U.S. This study has two main objectives: (1) to understand the impact of corn stover moisture content and grinder speed on grind physical properties; and (2) develop response surface models and optimize these models using a hybrid genetic algorithm. The response surface models developed were used to draw surface plots to understand the interaction effects of the corn stover grind moisture content and grinder speed on the grind physical properties and specific energy consumption. The surface plots indicated that a higher corn stover grind moisture content and grinder speed had a positive effect on the bulk and tapped density. The final grind moisture content was highly influenced by the initial moisture content of the corn stover grind. Optimization of the response surface models using the hybrid genetic algorithm indicated that moisture content in the range of 17 to 19% (w.b.) and a grinder speed of 47 to 49 Hz maximized the bulk and tapped density and minimized the geomantic mean particle length. The specific energy consumption was minimized when the grinder speed was about 20 Hz and the corn stover grind moisture content was about 10% (w.b.).

Investigating the role of mechanics in lignocellulosic biomass degradation during hydrolysis

Enzymes and mechanics play major roles in lignocellulosic biomass deconstruction in biorefineries by catalyzing chemical cleavage or inducing physical breakdown of biomass, respectively. At industrially relevant substrate concentrations mechanical agitation is also a driving force for mass transfer as well as agglomeration of elongated biomass particles. Contrary to the physically induced particle attrition, which typically facilitates feedstock handling, particle agglomeration tends to hinder mass transfer and in the worst case induces processing difficulties like pipe blockage. Understanding the complex interplay between mechanical agitation and enzymatic degradation during hydrolysis is therefore critical and was the aim of this study. Particle size analyses revealed that neither mechanical agitation alone nor enzymatic treatment without mechanical agitation had any noteworthy effect on flax fiber attrition. Similarly, successive treatment, where mechanical agitation was either preceded or proceeded by enzymatic hydrolysis, did not induce any substantial segmentation of flax fibers. Simultaneous enzymatic and mechanical treatment on the other hand was found to promote fast fiber shortening. Higher hydrolysis yields, however, were obtained from nonagitated samples after prolonged enzymatic treatment, indicating that mechanical agitation in the long run reduces activity of the cellulolytic enzymes. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 35: e2754, 2019.

Rheological properties of corn stover slurries during fermentation by Clostridium thermocellum

BACKGROUND

Milling during fermentation, termed cotreatment, has recently been proposed as an alternative to thermochemical pretreatment as a means to increase the accessibility of lignocellulosic biomass to biological attack. A central premise of this approach is that partial solubilization of biomass changes the slurry's physical properties such that milling becomes more impactful and more feasible. A key uncertainty is the energy required to mill partially fermented biomass. To inform both of these issues, we report rheological characterization of small-particle, corn stover slurries undergoing fermentation by Clostridium thermocellum.

RESULTS

Fermented and unfermented corn stover slurries were found to be shear-thinning and well described by a power law model with an exponent of 0.10. Plastic viscosity of a slurry, initially at 16 wt.% insoluble solids, decreased as a result of fermentation by a factor of 2000, with the first eightfold reduction occurring in the first 10% of carbohydrate conversion. Large amplitude oscillatory shear experiments revealed only minor changes to the slurry's rheological fingerprint as a result of fermentation, with the notable change being a reduction in the critical strain amplitude needed for the onset of nonlinearity. All slurries were found to be elastoviscoplastic, with the elastic/viscous crossover at roughly 100% strain amplitude.

CONCLUSIONS

Whereas prior biomass rheology studies have involved pretreated feedstocks and solubilization mediated by fungal cellulase, we report results for feedstocks with no pretreatment other than autoclaving and for solubilization mediated by C. thermocellum. As observed in prior studies, C. thermocellum fermentation results in a dramatic decrease in viscosity. The magnitude of this decrease, however, is much larger starting with unpretreated feedstock than previously reported for pretreated feedstocks. LAOS measurements provide a detailed picture of the rheological fingerprint of the material. Viscosity measurements confirm the hypothesis that the physical character of corn stover slurries changes dramatically during fermentation by C. thermocellum, and indicate that the energy expended on overcoming slurry viscosity will be far less for partially fermented corn stover than for unfermented corn stover.

Mechanistic insights into the liquefaction stage of enzyme-mediated biomass deconstruction

Effective enzyme-mediated viscosity reduction, disaggregation, or "liquefaction," is required to overcome the rheological challenges resulting from the fibrous, hygroscopic nature of lignocellulosic biomass, particularly at the high solids loadings that will be required for an economically viable process. However, the actual mechanisms involved in enzyme-mediated liquefaction, as determined by viscosity or yield stress reduction, have yet to be fully resolved. Particle fragmentation, interparticle interaction, material dilution, and water-retention capacity were compared for their ability to quantify enzyme-mediated liquefaction of model and more realistic pretreated biomass substrates. It was apparent that material dilution and particle fragmentation occurred simultaneously and that both mechanisms contributed to viscosity/yield stress reduction. However, their relative importance was dependent on the nature of the biomass substrate. Interparticle interaction and enzyme-mediated changes to these interactions was shown to have a significant effect on slurry rheology. Liquefaction was shown to result from the combined action of material dilution, particle fragmentation, and alteration of interactions at particle surfaces. However, the observed changes in water retention capacity did not correlate with yield stress reduction. The relative importance of each mechanism was significantly influenced by the nature of the biomass substrate and its physicochemical properties. An ongoing challenge is that mechanisms, such as refining, which enhance enzyme accessibility to the cellulosic component of the substrate, are detrimental to slurry rheology and will likely impede enzyme-mediated liquefaction when high substrate concentrations are used.

Post-treatment mechanical refining as a method to improve overall sugar recovery of steam pretreated hybrid poplar

This study investigates the effect of mechanical refining to improve the sugar yield from biomass processed under a wide range of steam pretreatment conditions. Hybrid poplar chips were steam pretreated using six different conditions with or without SO2. The resulting water insoluble fractions were subjected to mechanical refining. After refining, poplar pretreated at 205°C for 10min without SO2 obtained a 32% improvement in enzymatic hydrolysis and achieved similar overall monomeric sugar recovery (539kg/tonne) to samples pretreated with SO2. Refining did not improve hydrolyzability of samples pretreated at more severe conditions, nor did it improve the overall sugar recovery. By maximizing overall sugar recovery, refining could partially decouple the pretreatment from other unit operations, and enable the use of low temperature, non-sulfur pretreatment conditions. The study demonstrates the possibility of using post-treatment refining to accommodate potential pretreatment process upsets without sacrificing sugar yields.

Rheology of Lignocellulose Suspensions and Impact of Hydrolysis: A Review

White biotechnologies have several challenges to overcome in order to become a viable industrial process. Achieving highly concentrated lignocellulose materials and releasing fermentable substrates, with controlled kinetics in order to regulate micro-organism activity, present major technical and scientific bottlenecks. The degradation of the main polymeric fractions of lignocellulose into simpler molecules is a prerequisite for an integrated utilisation of this resource in a biorefinery concept. The characterisation methods and the observations developed for rheology, morphology, etc., that are reviewed here are strongly dependent on the fibrous nature of lignocellulose, are thus similar or constitute a good approach to filamentous culture broths. This review focuses on scientific works related to the study of the rheological behaviour of lignocellulose suspensions and their evolution during biocatalysis. In order to produce the targeted molecules (synthon), the lignocellulose substrates are converted by enzymatic degradation and are then metabolised by micro-organisms. The dynamics of the mechanisms is limited by coupled phenomena between flow, heat and mass transfers in regard to diffusion (within solid and liquid phases), convection (mixing, transfer coefficients, homogeneity) and specific inhibitors (concentration gradients). As lignocellulose suspensions consist of long entangled fibres for the matrix of industrial interest, they exhibit diverse and complex properties linked to this fibrous character (rheological, morphological, thermal, mechanical and biochemical parameters). Among the main variables to be studied, the rheological behaviour of such suspensions appears to be determinant for process efficiency. It is this behaviour that will determine the equipment to be used and the strategies applied (substrate and biocatalysis feed, mixing, etc.). This review provides an overview of (i) the rheological behaviour of fibrous materials in suspension, (ii) the methods and experimental conditions for their measurements, (iii) the main models used and (iv) their evolution during biocatalytic reactions with a focus on enzymatic hydrolysis.

Effects of agitation on particle-size distribution and enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated spruce and giant reed

BACKGROUND

Mixing is an energy demanding process which has been previously shown to affect enzymatic hydrolysis. Concentrated biomass slurries are associated with high and non-Newtonian viscosities and mixing in these systems is a complex task. Poor mixing can lead to mass and/or heat transfer problems as well as inhomogeneous enzyme distribution, both of which can cause possible yield reduction. Furthermore the stirring energy dissipation may impact the particle size which in turn may affect the enzymatic hydrolysis. The objective of the current work was to specifically quantify the effects of mixing on particle-size distribution (PSD) and relate this to changes in the enzymatic hydrolysis. Two rather different materials were investigated, namely pretreated Norway spruce and giant reed.

RESULTS

Changes in glucan hydrolysis and PSD were measured as a function of agitation during enzymatic hydrolysis at fiber loadings of 7 or 13% water-insoluble solids (WIS). Enzymatic conversion of pretreated spruce was strongly affected by agitation rates at the higher WIS content. However, at low WIS content the agitation had almost no effect on hydrolysis. There was some effect of agitation on the hydrolysis of giant reed at high WIS loading, but it was smaller than that for spruce, and there was no measurable effect at low WIS loading. In the case of spruce, intense agitation clearly affected the PSD and resulted in a reduced mean particle size, whereas for giant reed the decrease in particle size was mainly driven by enzymatic action. However, the rate of enzymatic hydrolysis was not increased after size reduction by agitation.

CONCLUSIONS

The impact of agitation on the enzymatic hydrolysis clearly depends not only on feedstock but also on the solids loading. Agitation was found to affect the PSD differently for the examined pretreated materials spruce and giant reed. The fact that the reduced mean particle diameter could not explain the enhanced hydrolysis rates found for spruce at an elevated agitation suggests that mass transfer at sustained high viscosities plays an important role in determining the rate of enzymatic hydrolysis.

Comparison of different mechanical refining technologies on the enzymatic digestibility of low severity acid pretreated corn stover

The effect of mechanical refining on the enzymatic digestibility of pretreated corn stover (PCS) was investigated. Low severity, dilute sulfuric acid PCS was subjected to mechanical refining using a bench-scale food processor blender, a PFI mill, a 12-inch laboratory disk refiner, and a 25 mm co-rotating twin-screw extruder. Glucose yields from enzymatic hydrolysis were improved by 10-15% after blending and disk refining, while PFI refining and twin-screw extrusion showed a glucose yield improvement of 16-20%. A pilot scale refining test using a Szego mill was performed and showed approximately 10% improvements in biomass digestibility. This suggests the possibility to scale up a mechanical refining technique to obtain similar enzymatic digestibility glucose yield enhancement as achieved by PFI milling and extrusion technologies. Proposed mechanisms of each mechanical refining technology are presented and reasons for improvements in biomass digestibility are discussed in this paper.