Cellulose and hemicellulose hydrolysis models for application to current and novel pretreatment processes

Acids catalyze the hydrolysis of cellulose and hemicellulose to produce sugars that organisms can ferment to ethanol and other products. However, advanced low- and no-acid technologies are critical if we are to reduce bio-ethanol costs to be competitive as a pure fuel. We believe carbohydrate oligomers play a key role in explaining the performance of such hydrolysis processes and that kinetic models would help us understand their role. Various investigations have developed reaction rate expressions based on an Arrhenius temperature dependence that is first order in substrate concentration and close to first order in acid concentration. In this article, we evaluate these existing hydrolysis models with the goal of providing a foundation for a unified model that can predict performance of both current and novel pretreatment process configurations.