Theoretical modeling and experimental validation of hydrodynamic cavitation reactor with a Venturi tube for sugarcane bagasse pretreatment.

A hydrodynamic cavitation reactor with a Venturi tube was modeled through a computational fluid dynamics approach in order to evaluate the influence of pressure ratio, diameter and length of the throat zone. A cavitation reactor equipped with a Venturi tube was built in accordance with the computational modeling results. Hydrodynamic cavitation assisted alkaline pretreatment was performed to evaluate the influence of NaOH concentration (1-5%), the weight to volume percentage of solid in liquid (1-5%) and the reaction time (20-60 min.