In the worldwide energetic context, developing new carburant is an important topic for researchers. The enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose is still considered as a main limiting step of the biological production of biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass. In order to better understand mechanisms involved in this reaction, an experimental study have been performed. On the one hand; kinetic parameters of enzymes used during the enzymatic hydrolysis have been determined and on the other hand, we have studied the evolution of substrates morphology and reactivity during the reaction. Pure enzymes and mix of enzymes have been studied and we demonstrate that the entire cocktail secreted by Trichoderma reesei can be described by a mix of four main enzymes. Then, structural characterization of partially hydrolysed substrate have shown that cellulosic particles are eroded by enzymes. The developed kinetic model considering the intrinsic reactivity of each enzymes, the synergy between enzymes and a substrate description allows a good description of the initial stage of the reaction. However, the substrate reactivity loss and the enzyme deactivation had been introduced to have a good description of the entire reaction.
