Optimization of Microwave-Based Heating of Cellulosic Biomass Using Taguchi Method

This study discusses the application of microwave-based heating for the pretreatment of biomass material, with Pennisetum purpureum selected for pretreatment. The Taguchi method was used to plan optimization experiments for the pretreatment parameter levels, and to measure the dynamic responses. With a low number of experiments, this study analyzed and determined a parameter combination in which Pennisetum purpureum can be rapidly heated to 190 °C. The experimental results suggested that the optimal parameter combination is: vessel capacity of 150 mL (level 2), heating power of 0.5 kW (level 1), and mass of Pennisetum purpureum of 5 g (level 1). The mass of Pennisetum purpureum is a key factor affecting system performance. An eight-order ARX model (Auto-Regressive eXogeneous) was representative of the actual system performance, and the fit was 99.13%. The results proved that microwave-based heating, with the assistance of the Taguchi method for pretreatment of the biomass material, can reduce the parameter combination variations.