Thermodynamic Considerations of Pretreatment of Lignocellulose to Cellulose Under Biomass Liquid and Semiliquid Conditions

Abstract

There is increase in awareness for deriving energy from renewable sources like biomass. Biomass contains lignin, cellulose, hemicellulose and lignocellulose. These basic carbohydrates can be converted into glucose molecules (as source of energy or fuel) or to other useful products. This can be achieved either by pyrolysis or degradation (by hydrolysis). In this study, we have considered glucose as monomer and all other constituents as polymer of glucose molecule, hence lignocellulose conversion to cellulose is considered here as depolymerisation of lignocellulose for n = 1000 to n = 500. For lignocellulose it can range upto few thousands. In this study, when thermodynamic principles (as derived from depolymerisation theory) are applied values of diffusivity found where in the unrealistic range for e.g. n = 5000 and diffusivity around 10-49 m2/sec. While for n = 1000 to n = 500 we obtained realistic values of diffusion coefficient ranges from 10-7 m2/sec to 10-12 m2/sec.

Keywords: Cellulose, Lignocellulose, Depolymerisation, Monomer

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