Thermal, Chemical, and Biological Processing

Abstract

This session focuses on processing steps required to convert the carbohydrates of biomass into fuels and chemicals. For illustrative purposes, Fig. 1 shows a representative block flow diagram for a bioethanol process. (Of course, other approaches may be taken as well.) First, the biomass is pretreated to render it more digestible. Then enzymes are added that hydrolyze cellulose and hemicellulose into sugars. Finally, microorganisms (e.g., yeast) ferment these sugars to ethanol, which is recovered by distillation. The papers in this session describe various aspects of the process shown in Fig. 1, such as new developments in pretreatments, models of the saccharification and fermentation steps, enzyme recovery, combined enzyme/ethanol production, and a process that allows ethanol to be produced from biomass contaminated with radioactivity.