Muslikhin Hidayat

Kinetics of sequential reaction of hydrolysis and sugar degradation of rice husk in ethanol production: Effect of catalyst concentration

This study focuses on kinetics of rice husk hydrolysis using sulfuric acid catalyst to produce sugars. The experiments were conducted at various catalyst concentrations. It turned out that during hydrolysis, degradation of sugars was encountered. The kinetics was expressed with both homogeneous and heterogeneous models. At catalyst concentration of higher than 0.44 N, heterogeneous model works better than homogeneous model, while at the lower, both models work well. In the heterogeneous model, it is observed that the mass transfer of sulfuric acid in the particles and the hydrolysis reaction control the rate of hydrolysis. The mass transfer can be described by Ficks law with the effective diffusivity of 1.4×10(-11) cm2/s, while the hydrolysis and sugar degradation rate constants follow Arrhenius equations. In addition, it was experimentally observed that the sugars produced can be converted to ethanol by fermentation using yeast.

Sulfuric acid hydrolysis of various lignocellulosic materials and its mixture in ethanol production

Lignocellulosic materials sustainability in ethanol production could be supported by the use of mixed raw materials. Therefore the effect of mixed raw materials to hydrolysis kinetics needs to be studied. For this purpose each raw material was hydrolyzed and the mixed raw materials were also hydrolyzed. As a result, a comparison of the kinetics models of dilute sulfuric acid hydrolysis between various lignocellulosic materials (leaf, twig, corn cob, sawdust) and its mixture was obtained. It was observed that a pseudo-homogeneous model can quantitatively describe individual materials as well as mixed materials with different levels of accuracy. Besides the kinetics model, the influence of various lignocellulosic materials on sugar yield was also investigated. The results showed that the lignin content of the raw material influenced the sugar yield of the hydrolysis. Moreover the mixed lignocellulosic materials did not proportionally provide a yield based on its composition. Some hydrolyzates were fermented to verify whether the sugars formed could be converted into ethanol using Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The fermentation results showed that high sugar concentrations of hydrolyzates did not produce high ethanol yields. The various sugar types and the chemical substance of the sugar degradation affected the ethanol yield from sugars.

KINETIKA REAKSI HIDROLISIS

Bio-etanol merupakan salah satu bahan bakar organik yang dapat diproduksi dari pati dan selulosa. Bahan berbasis selulosa dapat ditemukan dalam limbah organik, diantaranya: grajen kayu, ranting kering, daun kering, tongkol jagung, sekam padi dan lain-lain. Langkah-langkah penting pada produksi etanol dari lignoselulosa ialah hidrolisis untuk mengkonversi hemiselulosa dan selulosa menjadi gula, fermentasi gula untuk memproduksi etanol, dan pemurnian etanol. Penelitian ini mempelajari reaksi hidrolisis ranting kering dengan asam encer pada kondisi non-isotermis. Dua ratus gram ranting kering dicampur dengan 1200 cm 3 larutan asam sulfat 0,18 N dan dipanaskan di dalam autoklaf. Selama proses hidrolisis ini, suhu akan terus naik (non-isotermis), kemudian setelah mencapai suhu tertentu dijaga tetap (suhu akhir). Hasil hidrolisis pertama diambil pada suhu 413 K dan seterusnya diambil setiap interval 5 menit. Suhu akhir divariasi pada 433 K, 453 K, 473 K dan 493 K. Metode Fehling dipilih untuk menganalisis kandungan gula di dalam sampel. Persamaan kinetika reaksi diperoleh dengan mengolah data dengan pendekatan model shrinking-core dengan ukuran partikel tetap. Nilai tetapan kecepatan reaksi meningkat sedangkan nilai tetapan transfer massa relatif tidak berubah pada berbagai suhu. Tetapan kecepatan reaksi dapat didekati dengan persamaan Arrhenius, dengan frekuensi tumbukan A r = 0,083 l/(mol.menit) dan energi aktivasi E r = 20.000 J/mol. Untuk menyelidiki langkah mana yang mengontrol laju proses, dibandingkan tetapan kecepatan reaksi dan tetapan transfer massa pada 493 K, diperoleh nilai tetapan transfer massa berkisar 0,06 l/(mol.menit), dan nilai tetapan kecepatan reaksi berkisar 0,00051 l/(mol.menit), sehingga diperoleh bilangan Hatta 0,00933. Karena bilangan Hatta < 0,02 maka dapat disimpulkan bahwa reaksi kimia lebih mengontrol daripada transfer massa.