Comparative study on the Effect of Temperature and Concentration on Waste Agricultural Cellulose Biomass Degradation

Bioconversion of agricultural waste products to produce value-added

food products like simple sugar; fuels and chemicals offers potential

economic, environmental and strategic advantages over traditional

fossil-based products. A comparative study on the effect of

temperature and concentration on waste cellulose biomass degradation

to glucose was studied at temperature range of 80 – 1300C and

concentration range of 2, 4, 4.5, 5.0, 5.5 and 6Mol/dm3

for a period of

48hours. The percentage (%) glucose yield was calculated at 8h

interval for the various temperatures and concentration ranges. This

study was done using two different acids namely sulphuric acid and

hydrochloric acid. The research showed that glucose is present in a

reasonable amount in sawdust and its %yield is greatly influenced by the acid concentration

and temperature. It is also influenced by the type of acid used and the reaction time. For a

temperature of 130

0C the %glucose yield when sulphuric acid was used for the cellulose

degradation at 2.0, 4.0, 4.5, 50, 5.5 and 6.0mol/dm3

after 48h is 28.4%, 37.2%, 35.6%,

47.8%, 56.7% and 61.2% while the %glucose yield for hydrochloric acid at the same

temperature and concentrations stood at 25.1%, 33.2%, 30.0%, 45.4%, 51.2% and 58.1%.

The results showed that the rate of hydrolysis by virtue of glucose yield, generally increased with increase in temperature and acid concentration except for acid concentration from 4,0 - 4.5mol/dm3 were we noticed a decline in %glucose yield for both acids and all the temperatures.