Pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse in repeated batches using hydrodynamic cavitation reactors

Abstract

Hydrodynamic cavitation is proposed for the pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse aiming to increase the enzymatic digestibility of the cellulose present in the material by commercial preparations of cellulases. Bagasse will be kept in a basket in the zone of influence of the cavitation generated by orifice plates. Alkaline solution will be recirculated in the system after the adjustment of the conditions of the inlet pressure in the orifice plates (P) and of the temperature (T). Experimental design will be used as optimization tool and for evaluation of the effect of the process variables, particularly P, T and alkali concentration. After the optimization of the conditions, repeated batches will be performed to minimize the alkali: bagasse mass ratio required in the pretreatment.