Scaling up the production of sugars from agricultural biomass by ultrafast hydrolysis in supercritical water

Abstract

The FASTSUGARS process for sugars’ recovery from agricultural biomass was scaled up from laboratory to pilot plant scale. System performance was evaluated by comparing the results obtained from sugar beet pulp and wheat bran in laboratory and pilot plants. Similar trends were found for each biomass in both plant: as reaction time increased, selectivity to sugars decreased and conversion and degradation rate increased. Then, to bring the FASTSUGARS process closer to industrial applications, the particle size of the biomass was increased in the pilot plant. It was found that the particle size acted as a mass transfer resistance, slowing down the hydrolysis of biomass, providing lower conversion and therefore reducing sugars’ degradation (degradation yield was lower than 15 % in the pilot plant). In that way, higher selectivity to sugars was obtained, reaching values around 90 % for both sugar beet pulp and wheat bran in the pilot plant.