Abstract:
The present investigation was carried out to study application of ANN as a tool for predicting sugar yields
of pretreated biomass during hydrolysis process at various time intervals. Since it is known that biomass
loading and particle size influences the rheology and mass transfer during hydrolysis process, these two
parameters were chosen for investigating the efficiency of hydrolysis. Alkali pretreated rice straw was
used as the model feedstock in this study and biomass loadings were varied from 10% to 18%. Substrate
particle sizes used were <0.5 mm, 0.5–1 mm, >1 mm and mixed size. Effectiveness of hydrolysis was
strongly influenced by biomass loadings, whereas particle size did not have any significant impact on
sugar yield. Higher biomass loadings resulted in higher sugar concentration in the hydrolysates.
Optimum hydrolysis conditions predicted were 10 FPU/g cellulase, 5 IU/g BGL, 7500 U/g xylanase, 18%
biomass loading and mixed particle size with reaction time between 12–28 h.
