LAUSR

Abstract Enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass to produce sugars that can be converted to fuels and other valuable chemicals, is viewed as the prime technology for utilization of this renewable resource. To accelerate technology development, models are needed that are able to accurately predict the hydrolysis rate so that reactors can be tailored to the multitude of processing conditions and substrates that can be used. Of particular interest is the ability to predict the long time conversion in the hydrolysis reaction which dictates the maximum possible sugar concentration. It is our aim in this article to develop a simple model which is able to predict the long-term conversion of cellulose to soluble sugars. Drawing on the analogy from the theory of reactions in continuous mixtures, it is shown that analysis of the long time kinetics of hydrolysis by examining the behavior of the “lump” of the reacting material results in a simple expression which is capable of predicting the kinetics. Many features of actual enzyme systems can be included in the development of the hydrolysis model, such as the large size of the enzyme molecules, adsorption onto substrate, inhibition by different factors (solvent, glucose etc.), but, when the analysis is carried out to calculate the total sugar concentration, it is shown that the equations reduce to a simple expression. Analysis of this model is given with comparison to other models and experimental data available in the literature. In addition to predicting the long-term kinetics, it is shown that the model does a surprising job of predicting the initial hydrolysis rates as well.