Hydrocel:: An application for the simulation of nonisothermal dilute acid hydrolysis of cellulose

HYDROCEL is a MS - Excel based application for the simulation of nonisothermal dilute acid hydrolysis of cellulose. The kinetics of dilute-acid hydrolysis of amorphous and crystalline cellulose were incorporated in this application. Cellulose crystallinity, as well as the formation of intermediate soluble oligosaccharides were playing major roles in the overall process simulation. A four-step kinetic model was used to describe the reaction system. The degree of cellulose degradation was expressed as a function of a hydrolysis reaction factor, which incorporates the effects of acid activity, temperature and reaction time.