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Energy from fossil fuels has played a very vital role in our lives, but this vital role has been overshadowed by the environmental dangers that emissions pose. This has resulted in the development of renewable energy fuels, a new area of energy consumption. A sufficient biomass source must be tapped in order to support this form of energy from biological mass. Thus, the aim of this study is to evaluate the kinetics of alkaline pretreatment of Afara wood sawdust using sodium hydroxide.
The kinetics of alkaline hydrolysis of cellulose isolated from afara wood sawdust was studied at temperature ranging between 40–100℃ for a duration of 2 hours and at 30 minutes intervals in a stirred conical flask which served as a batch reactor. The effect of temperature and time on cellulose hydrolysis was also investigated.
The findings demonstrated that the rate of hydrolysis by virtue of glucose yield generally increased with increase in temperature and time. The experimental data were fitted to integrated first order rate kinetics and the results obtained indicated a first order rate of glucose formation from the cellulose obtained from the Afara wood sawdust. The activation energy, Ea estimated from Arrhenius equation was 26.02 KJ/mole and the preexponential factor, k0 was 8.65 min-1. This value suggests the ease with which hydrolysis can occur and that the biomass can be converted into useful products for the benefits of humanity. Thus, proper utilization of Afara wood sawdust will not only address disposal issue but also yield a high value product from waste generated from wood industry.
