Journal of Fundamentals of Renewable Energy and Applications
Open Access
ISSN: 2090-4541
ISSN: 2090-4541
Gujjala Lohit Kumar Srinivas and Rintu Banerjee
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Fundam Renewable Energy Appl
Quest for clean and green energy is a universal need which has been on every country��?s agenda recently considering the whopping population and diminishing conventional reserves. This demand for clean energy can be sustainably fulfilled by non-edible lignocellulosic biomass owing to its rich sugar content and non-involvement in food, fodder vs. fuel controversy. Production of lignocellulosic biofuels requires an array of steps viz., pretreatment, saccharification and fermentation. Among these steps, pretreatment is one of the crucial one��?s considering its major involvement in efficiency and cost of the entire process. In this investigation, kinetic modeling approach has been adopted to comprehensively study laccase (produced from Pleurotus djamor) mediated delignification of Ricinus communis. For accomplishing the task, two systems of coupled models were hypothesized which were subsequently fitted onto the experimental data for deciphering the values of kinetic and thermodynamic constants describing the process. One of the models framed was based on Michaelis Menten (type I) while the other was a modification of Tesseir��?s equation (type II). After fitting the experimental data onto the models, activation energy of laccase mediated delignification was determined to be 47.65 and 45.52 kJ/mol from type I and II models respectively. Entropy and enthalpy change during delignification was estimated to have positive values which indicate that the process is spontaneous and endothermic in nature. Sensitivity analysis of the models towards the kinetic constants was also conducted and it was observed that the models were most sensitive towards temperature dependent kinetic constants.
Email: lohit.gujjala@gmail.com