A novel quasi plug-flow reactor design for enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose using rheology experiment and CFD simulation

One of the obstacles constraining bio-ethanol production using cellulose is enzymatic hydrolysis. Uniform distribution of slurry residence time is important to improve the efficiency. Efforts were made to develop a novel quasi plug-flow reactor on industrial scale for enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose by CFD simulation. Ahead of numerical simulation, the rheological properties of the cellulose enzymolysis slurry of furfural residues were studied based on experiments. A turbulence model called k-kl- was employed in CFD simulation, which was good at describing the flow field with great variation on the extent of turbulence in the stirred tank. Vertical blades, pitched blades, helical ribbons, and their combination were investigated firstly, and then the internal structures were optimized. The calculated residence time distribution curve showed that the quasi plug-flow reactor had the following features: (1) combination of double helical ribbons and vertical blade, (2) two partitions and four baffles, (3) flow area was 0.1m(2) on partitions. The CFD simulation methods and results could provide a theoretical guidance for the development of a novel quasi plug-flow reactor to improve the efficiency of the cellulose enzymatic hydrolysis on industrial scale.