Rheology measurements of a biomass slurry: an inter-laboratory study

Biomass processing into ethanol: pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation, rheology, and mixing

“…For wood pulp fibers, the power law index is reported in the narrower range of 2.3-3.6 [118]. This narrower range could be attributed to a more uniform size distribution of pulp fibers, while biomass such as corn stover was found to consist of particles and fibers with sizes ranging between microns and millimeters and aspect ratios ranging from 1 to 20 [113,114].…”

“…The nonNewtonian behavior begins at biomass concentrations above 5% (w/w) [112]. At biomass concentration ~20% (w/w) pretreated corn stover is a thick paste that can undergo irreversible plastic deformation [113]. Yield stress and viscosity increase with increasing biomass concentration due to increased interaction between biomass fibers and particles [116].…”

“…It was shown that untreated/pretreated biomass slurries are shear-thinning fluids with considerable yield stress [112][113][114][115]. The nonNewtonian behavior begins at biomass concentrations above 5% (w/w) [112].…”

Propagation of viscous gravity currents inside confining boundaries: the effects of fluid rheology and channel geometry

“…Consideration of non-Newtonian effects is essential for studying several environmental, industrial and biological phenomena, such as the spreading of muds in submarine settings [9]; the motion of natural suspensions containing sand, silt, clay and organic fractions [10,11]; debris flows in mountainous areas [12]; the propagation of pyroclastic flows produced by volcanic eruptions [13,14]; magma flow at sub-liquidus temperatures, owing to gas bubbles and to the presence of crystals [15]; the disposal of mine tailings in the minerals industry [16]; the flow of biomass slurries [17]; blood motion in arterioles [18]. In a number of instances, the fluid rheological behaviour is appropriately described by a Cross or Carreau-Yasuda model, but can be approximated over a certain range of shear rates by the simpler Ostwald-de Waele powerlaw model [19] if the yield stress is limited.…”

Viscoelastic Properties of Pulp Suspensions of Bleached Sugarcane Bagasse: Effects of Consistency and Temperature

“…The effect of the chemical flocculant on the shear moduli was large; both the elastic and the viscous modulus increased. On the other hand, Stickel et al (2009) performed rheological measurements of a lignocellulosic biomass slurry at concentrations up to 30%. The elastic modulus was found to be almost an order of magnitude larger than the viscous modulus and weakly dependent on frequency.…”