Modelagem e simulação de desintoxicação de licores simulados de pré-tratamento via adsorção em carvão ativado

Abstract

Studies aimed at modeling multicomponent adsorption units are quite short in the literature because of the large number of hypotheses to be considered. However, it is interesting to improve this kind of an operation due to its low cost. In biorefineries dedicated to ethanol 2nd generation, the residues produced after the biomass pre-treatment section can act as contaminants in the next fermentation process. Due to the difficulty in accessing the sugars contained in the waste, one of the ways to access this glucose is to use acid pre-treatment. This process contaminates the product with phenolic compounds, furfural, and hydroxymethyl furfural, in addition to the acid residues that remain in the reject. To eliminate contaminants, adsorption with activated carbon in a fixed bed reactor is feasible due to the selectivity of activated carbon to adsorb these compounds. Thus, in the present work, we sought to analyze the amount of glucose adsorbed in the multicomponent adsorption process until the moment of saturation of the rupture curves. The mathematical model contemplates different initial and boundary conditions, fixed bed height, and changes in fluid velocity. The parameters of the model were estimated based on experimental data obtained in the laboratory. The results showed that bed height was the most significant variable. The coefficient of determination R² for the components: glucose, xylose, acetic acid, and all eight datasets available for the evaluation was above 0.98.