Degree Name
MS (Master of Science)
Program
Chemistry
Date of Award
8-2018
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Dane W. Scott
Committee Members
Robert Standaert, Dr. Aleksey N. Vasiliev
Abstract
Hydrolysis of cellulosic biomass is an important and ongoing subject of research due to generating precursors for biofuel synthesis. This work involves hydrolysis of microcrystalline cellulose and Arundo donax to glucose. Methods for acid hydrolysis include the use of sulfuric acid, phosphomolybdic acid, blue molybdenum using low concentrations at 40-100 °C. For comparison purposes, enzymatic hydrolysis was also carried out using cellulase. Products were quantified by measuring total organic carbon and reducible sugars using dinitrosalicylic acid. Use of phosphomolybdic acid, blue molybdenum and sulfuric acid even at 6.0 M did not increase the amount of glucose compared to using water only. Interestingly, enzymatic hydrolysis of powdered Arundo donax without pretreatment was successful and resulted in statistically similar amounts of glucose compared to using microcrystalline cellulose. Efforts are ongoing to understand the enzyme kinetics in the hydrolysis of Arundo donax and potentially increase the yield of glucose using chemical and microbiological pretreatment.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Awudu, Farouk, "Hydrolysis of Cellulose and Biomass Using Blue Molybdenum" (2018). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 3473. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3473
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.