Differences in catalytic liquefaction kinetics of corn stalk fractions

Biomass-based polyol obtained by chemical liquefaction technology is a potential substitute for polyether or polyester polyol in preparation of degradable polymers. To obtain the favorable biomass-based polyol products, one important emphasis is to reveal the liquefaction kinetics. The liquefaction kinetics of different corn stalk (CS) fractions, i.e. whole CS, ear husk and leaf blade, were investigated in this work. The liquefactions were catalyzed with sulfuric acid at 120–180 °C for 15–90 min. The results indicated that the apparent reaction rate constant (k), apparent activation energy (E), ΔG′, and ΔH′ of liquefaction reactions differed remarkably with different CS fractions. The highest k of 1.8 × 10^?4 s^?1 was obtained from ear husk liquefaction at 120 °C, which was twofold and 2.7-fold higher than those of whole CS and leaf blade, respectively. However, k is not correlated with the stalk heterogeneity at temperature over 120 °C. The calculated E _{ear husk}, E _{whole CS} and E _{leaf blade} were 65.88, 81.64 and 85.23 kJ mol^?1, respectively. ΔG′ and ΔH′ values of ear husk liquefaction reactions were lower than those of the other two fractions. This work was the first comparison of kinetics with different biomass fractions, casting light on the effect of heterogeneity on liquefaction, and suggesting that CS fractions should be given themselves optimum applications in future.