| Popis: |
Cocoa pod husks and unripe plantain peels are mass flows that are hugely available in Nigeria without any known industrial application. This study involves the kinetic analysis of the decomposition of hemicellulose into xylose and furfural during the hydrothermal pretreatment of cocoa pod husks and unripe plantain peels within a temperature, time, and solid concentration range of 110 - 140 °C, 5 - 10 minutes and 60 – 100 g/dm3 respectively. The experimentally obtained kinetic constants determined the optimal time for the desired product's (xylose) maximum yield. At the process temperature of 110, 125 and 140 °C, the optimal times were 332, 140 and 79 minutes respectively for the cocoa pod husks, and 210, 117 and 29 minutes respectively for unripe plantain peels. The kinetic models developed from the Response Surface Methodology show that the formation of xylose and furfural from cocoa pod husks and unripe plantain peels depends only on the process temperature and time but not on the concentration of biomass in the reactor. Keywords: lignocellulosic biomass; severity factor; response surface methodology |
