Hydrolysis of corn stover pretreated by DESs with carbon-based solid acid catalyst

Abstract

Abstract This study evaluated two hydrolysis strategies that involve a two-step and a one-pot process for the hydrolysis of cellulose. The two-step process consisted of cellulose pretreatment with deep eutectic solvent, followed by hydrolysis promoted by the carbon-based solid acid catalyst. The obtained results showed that the xylose and glucose yields were 33.9% and 6.9%, respectively, from corn stover based on this two-step strategy with ChCl ·Formic acid used as the pretreatment solvent. For one-pot hydrolysis, side reactions occurred and less glucose accumulated in the reaction system. In this case, the maximum achieved glucose yield was 21.1% for the hydrolysis of microcrystalline cellulose. Graphic abstract The corn stover was pretreated with DES and then hydrolysed by carbon-based solid acid catalyst. Approximately 33.9% of xylose and 6.9% of glucose was recovered from corn stover with ChCl·Formic acid as the pretreatment solvent.

Keywords

• Deep eutectic solvents
• Pretreatment of lignocellulose
• Hydrolysis of cellulose
• Heterogeneous catalyst