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Effects of the pelleting conditions on chemical composition and sugar yield of corn stover, big bluestem, wheat straw, and sorghum stalk pellets

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Abstract

Pelleting of biomass can increase their bulk density and thus improve storability and reduce transportation costs. The objective of this research was to determine the effects of the pelleting conditions on chemical composition and fermentable sugar yield of the biomass. Corn stover, wheat straw, big bluestem, and sorghum stalks were used for this study. Dilute sulfuric acid was used for biomass pretreatment. Accellerase 1500™ was used for cellulose hydrolysis. Effects of mill screen size, die thickness, and L/D ratio of die on chemical compositions and sugar yield were determined. Glucan content of the biomass was positively affected by die thickness and negatively affected by mill screen size. Opposite trend was observed for xylan content. Wheat straw pellets had the highest sugar yield (92.5–94.1%) and big bluestem pellets had the lowest sugar yield (83.6–91.1%). Optimum pelleting condition is 6.5 mm screen size and 44.5 mm die thickness.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by the Biomass Research and Development Initiative Competitive Grants Program (BRDI), USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Grant No. 68-3A75-7-609. Contribution number 11-246-J from the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station. This study was also partly supported by NSF award CMMI-0970112.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506, USA

    Karnnalin Theerarattananoon, Feng Xu & Donghai Wang

  2. Department of Agronomy, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506, USA

    Scott Staggenborg

  3. Department of Grain Science and Industry, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506, USA

    Jonathan Wilson, Leland Mckinney & Praveen Vadlani

  4. Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506, USA

    Zhijian Pei

Authors
  1. Karnnalin Theerarattananoon
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  2. Feng Xu
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  3. Jonathan Wilson
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  4. Scott Staggenborg
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  5. Leland Mckinney
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  6. Praveen Vadlani
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  7. Zhijian Pei
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  8. Donghai Wang
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Correspondence to Donghai Wang.

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Theerarattananoon, K., Xu, F., Wilson, J. et al. Effects of the pelleting conditions on chemical composition and sugar yield of corn stover, big bluestem, wheat straw, and sorghum stalk pellets. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 35, 615–623 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-011-0642-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-011-0642-8

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