(200g) Engineering the Kinetics of Acid Hydrolysis of Corn COB to Glucose for BIO-Ethanol Production

Corn cob as a renewable, cheap and abundant lignocellulosic material has been found to be a potential source of fermentable sugars, which can serve as a substrate for value added products such as ethanol. Our research project studied the glucose production from corn cob using phosphoric and nitric acids hydrolysis at 130⁰C, at an acid concentration range of 1-5wt% and at time intervals between 18 to 90mins. The high hemi-cellulosic content of the substrate was confirmed through a proximate constituent’s characterization. Seaman’s model and the Two-fraction model were useful in studying the kinetics of the glucose production in the hydrolysates and having the Two-fraction model give a better fit with R² approximately equal to 1 indicated suitability for use in engineering the kinetics of the acid hydrolysis process. Within 42 mins, glucose concentration as much as 0.038mg/ml was produced when 5wt% H₃PO₄ was used as catalyst for the hydrolysis, with 0.4% susceptibility to hydrolysis. And within 77mins, up to 0.054mg/ml glucose concentration was produced for the nitric acid hydrolysis with 2wt% HNO₃, with 0.6% susceptibility to hydrolysis. Comparatively, nitric acid proved to be a more efficient catalyst for the acid hydrolysis of the corn cobs and provided great insight to the engineering of the kinetics of the acid hydrolysis process for greater glucose yield and in turn higher potential for bio-ethanol production capacity.