ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Catal.
Sec. Industrial Catalysis
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvanced Catalytic Systems for Biomass ValorizationView all articles
An In-Silico Study on Transient Enzyme Diffusion and Adsorption within Lignocellulosic Biomass using a Multi-Scale Model
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Toledo, Toledo, United States
- 2Michigan Technological University, Houghton, United States
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Diffusion of hydrolytic enzymes into biomass particles is a potential limiting step, which has yet to be studied in detail separate from intrinsic hydrolysis kinetics. We developed and applied a pore-enzyme diffusion model for both adsorbing and non-adsorbing enzymes and coupled them to reactor-level mass balance equations. With this multi-scale model, the effects of biomass particle porosity, size, and adsorption capacity on the characteristic time of enzyme diffusion and adsorption were predicted over an expected range of these parameters. Using a hydrolysis limiting threshold characteristic time for enzyme diffusion of 6 hours, this model mapped the transport parameter space between two distinct zones: diffusion limiting and non-diffusion limiting. The model also predicted a decrease in characteristic time with an increase in the biomass-to-enzyme loading ratio. At the particle level, characteristic time was most strongly affected by firstly adsorption capacity, then particle radius, adsorption affinity, and porosity.
Keywords: Adsorption, and Enzymatic Hydrolysis, Bioengineering, Diffusion, modeling
Received: 05 Dec 2025; Accepted: 09 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Merugu and Shonnard. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Saketh Merugu
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