Development of modified HCH-1 kinetic model for long-term enzymatic cellulose hydrolysis and comparison with literature models

Background Enzymatic hydrolysis is a major step for cellulosic ethanol production. A thorough understanding of enzymatic hydrolysis is necessary to help design optimal conditions and economical systems. The original HCH-1 (Holtzapple–Caram–Humphrey–1) model is a generalized mechanistic model for enzymatic cellulose hydrolysis, but was previously applied only to the initial rates. In this study, the original HCH-1 model was modified to describe integrated enzymatic cellulose hydrolysis. The relationships between parameters in the HCH-1 model and substrate conversion were investigated. Literature models for long-term (> 48 h) enzymatic hydrolysis were summarized and compared to the modified HCH-1 model. Results A modified HCH-1 model was developed for long-term (> 48 h) enzymatic cellulose hydrolysis. This modified HCH-1 model includes the following additional considerations: (1) relationships between coefficients and substrate conversion, and (2) enzyme stability. Parameter estimation was performed with 10-day experimental data using α-cellulose as substrate. The developed model satisfactorily describes integrated cellulose hydrolysis data taken with various reaction conditions (initial substrate concentration, initial product concentration, enzyme loading, time). Mechanistic (and semi-mechanistic) literature models for long-term enzymatic hydrolysis were compared with the modified HCH-1 model and evaluated by the corrected version of the Akaike information criterion. Comparison results show that the modified HCH-1 model provides the best fit for enzymatic cellulose hydrolysis. Conclusions The HCH-1 model was modified to extend its application to integrated enzymatic hydrolysis; it performed well when predicting 10-day cellulose hydrolysis at various experimental conditions. Comparison with the literature models showed that the modified HCH-1 model provided the best fit.