Currently, the technologies used to separate lignocellulosic biomass into its component parts (cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) and enzymatically hydrolyze the cellulose to glucose for conversion to ethanol could be improved economically and in terms of efficiency. A major impediment to utilizing the biomass is the presence of residual lignin. The...
Microreactors offer high rates of heat transfer able to intensify highly endothermic biomass reforming reactions in supercritical water. In this study, two continuous flow microreactor configurations were used to gasify biomass constituents in supercritical water. The first reactor configuration was a micro diameter stainless steel or Hastelloy tube (508 µm...
There is considerable interest in developing environmentally friendly processes for the economical conversion of biomass plant material to biofuels, bioproducts and biomaterials. One approach to such a conversion process is to make use of enzymes for the conversion of plant polysaccharides to simple sugars; the simple sugars could then be...