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Characterization of mixing and yield stress of pretreated wheat straw slurries used for the production of biofuels through tomography technique

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Abstract

Wheat straw is a low-cost feedstock for the production of biofuel. Pretreatment process is an important stage in producing biofuels since it makes the fibers more accessible to enzymatic hydrolysis which is the final step of producing biofuels. Pretreated wheat straw (PWS) slurries are non-Newtonian fluids with yield stress. Mixing of fluids exhibiting yield stress such as the pretreated wheat straw slurry results in the generation of cavern, which is a fully-mixed zone, around the impeller and the stationary regions elsewhere, which causes difficulties in the production of biofuels. In this study, the non-invasive electrical resistance tomography technique was utilized to determine the cavern dimensions as a function of the impeller type and impeller speed. The cavern sizes were then used to measure the yield stress of PWS slurries as a function of fiber size (≤ 2 and ≤ 6 mm) and fiber concentration (6, 8, and 10 wt%).

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Abbreviations

2D:

Two dimensions

DAS:

Data acquisition system

ERT:

Electrical resistance tomography

PWS:

Pretreated wheat straw

WS:

Wheat straw

D :

Impeller diameter (m)

D c :

Cavern diameter (m)

g :

Gravitational acceleration (m/s2)

H :

Fluid height in the vessel (m)

H c :

Cavern height (m)

M :

Torque (N m)

n :

Power-law index (–)

N :

Impeller rotational speed (s−1)

P :

Power (W)

P o :

Power number (–)

P 1–P 4 :

Plane number (–)

T :

Tank diameter (m)

τ y :

Fluid yield stress (Pa)

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Acknowledgements

The financial support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) (RGPIN-2014-03957) is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON, M5B 2K3, Canada

    Yasaman Naghavi-Anaraki, Ginette Turcotte & Farhad Ein-Mozaffari

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  1. Yasaman Naghavi-Anaraki
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  2. Ginette Turcotte
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  3. Farhad Ein-Mozaffari
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Correspondence to Farhad Ein-Mozaffari.

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Naghavi-Anaraki, Y., Turcotte, G. & Ein-Mozaffari, F. Characterization of mixing and yield stress of pretreated wheat straw slurries used for the production of biofuels through tomography technique. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 41, 1315–1328 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-018-1959-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-018-1959-3

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