Rheology of concentrated biomass

Economic processing of lignocellulosic biomass requires handling the biomass at high solids concentration. This creates challenges because concentrated biomass behaves as a Bingham-like material with large yield stresses. Here we employ torque rheometry to measure the rheological properties of concentrated lignocellulosic biomass (corn stover). Yield stresses obtained using torque rheometry agree with those obtained using other rheometric methods, but torque rheometry can be used at much larger solids concentration (weight fractions of insoluble solids greater than 0.2). Yield stresses decrease with severity of hydrolysis, decrease when water-soluble polymers are added (for nonhydrolyzed biomass), and increase with particle length. Experimental results are qualitatively consistent with those obtained from particle-level simulations.