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Recirculating Calcium Hydroxide Solution: A Practical Choice For On-Farm High Solids Lignocellulose Pretreatment, William S. Sympson Jr.

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Pretreatment is a necessary step in the utilization of lignocellulosic biomass for biochemical conversion to higher value products. There are multiple chemical choices for industrial settings, however on-farm choices are constrained to near ambient conditions with minimal specialized equipment, training, and limited waste disposal. Calcium hydroxide (lime) is suitable for on-farm use. This work presents the novel idea of pretreating biomass by recirculating a filtered, saturated lime solution in an up-flow, high solids (14-16% w/w) configuration at ambient conditions. In this system, lime solids were efficiently consumed, post-pretreatment washing of substrate did not significantly improve glucose yields, and energy and …