Kinetic modeling for enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated sugarcane straw

•Enzymatic hydrolysis of sugarcane straw at high solids concentration was modeled.•Parameter correlation was reduced simplifying the model without affecting fidelity.•Model includes enzyme adsorption, xylose formation, end-product inhibition and substrate reactivity.•High-solids saccharification over a broad range of loading conditions was described with accuracy.

A semimechanistic multi-reaction kinetic model was developed for modeling enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated sugarcane straw (SCS) at high-solids concentration. The model, including: enzyme adsorption, xylose formation, end-product inhibition and substrate reactivity, was adjusted from a reference condition (enzyme concentration of 10 FPU/g-cellulose and solid loading of 15% w/v, dry basis). A simplified model was also proposed to overcome high parameter correlation and improve model fidelity. Predictive capacity of both simplified and original model was verified for different enzyme concentration (5–60 FPU/g-cellulose), solids loading (10 and 20 %) and end-product sugar inhibition (30 and 60 g/L glucose, 10 g/L cellobiose and 10 g/L xylose). The glucose concentration was predicted with reasonable accuracy by the simplified model, even under critical conditions of sugar-inhibition. The model is able to describe batch saccharification of pretreated SCS at high-solids concentrations.