TY - JOUR
T1 - Cellulose Hydrolysis Using Oxidized Carbon Catalyst in a Plug-Flow Slurry Process
AU - Shrotri, Abhijit
AU - Kobayashi, Hirokazu
AU - Kaiki, Hiroyuki
AU - Yabushita, Mizuho
AU - Fukuoka, Atsushi
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by funding received from the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) through the Advanced Low Carbon Technology Research and Development Program (ALCA).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2017/12/13
Y1 - 2017/12/13
N2 - The catalytic conversion of cellulose to glucose at the industrial scale is a sustainable approach to the production of fuels and chemicals. Herein, we report the hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose using an inexpensive carbon catalyst in a continuous slurry process. A carbon catalyst prepared by air oxidation showed the highest activity for cellulose hydrolysis owing to the large number of weakly acidic functional groups. The air-oxidized carbon catalyst hydrolyzed cellulose in a plug-flow slurry reactor after mix-milling to produce soluble β-1,4-glucans. Further hydrolysis of the β-1,4-glucans to glucose was achieved using a fixed-bed reactor containing Amberlyst-70 catalyst in series with the slurry reactor to obtain glucose in 59% yield. Another approach was to use dilute H3PO4 for the hydrolysis of the β-1,4-glucans to glucose with a 70% yield, resulting in a space time yield of glucose of 456 kg m-3 h-1. The simple design, short residence time, and high space time yield will enable the scaleup of this process using existing chemical technology.
AB - The catalytic conversion of cellulose to glucose at the industrial scale is a sustainable approach to the production of fuels and chemicals. Herein, we report the hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose using an inexpensive carbon catalyst in a continuous slurry process. A carbon catalyst prepared by air oxidation showed the highest activity for cellulose hydrolysis owing to the large number of weakly acidic functional groups. The air-oxidized carbon catalyst hydrolyzed cellulose in a plug-flow slurry reactor after mix-milling to produce soluble β-1,4-glucans. Further hydrolysis of the β-1,4-glucans to glucose was achieved using a fixed-bed reactor containing Amberlyst-70 catalyst in series with the slurry reactor to obtain glucose in 59% yield. Another approach was to use dilute H3PO4 for the hydrolysis of the β-1,4-glucans to glucose with a 70% yield, resulting in a space time yield of glucose of 456 kg m-3 h-1. The simple design, short residence time, and high space time yield will enable the scaleup of this process using existing chemical technology.
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U2 - 10.1021/acs.iecr.7b03918
DO - 10.1021/acs.iecr.7b03918
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85038390889
VL - 56
SP - 14471
EP - 14478
JO - Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
JF - Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
SN - 0888-5885
IS - 49
ER -