Mathematical modeling of flow and kinetics in a reactor for dilute-Acid hydrolysis of cellulose particles: a mixture flow approach.

A mathematical model to simulate the dilute-acid hydrolysis process of cellulose particles is presented. In this model, the mass is treated as a mixture of different components. A test case is considered for which transport equations for components are developed and solved together with the momentum equation for the fluid flow. To solve the model equations, a commercially available flow solver was used. All input data were taken from previously published works. For the small static mixer considered as test geometry, the result, in terms of the conversion of the cellulose particles, was reasonable. With input parameters that are relevant to a plant-size reactor, the model can be used to predict the conversion of both cellulose and hemicellulose particles.