Low temperature hydrochloric acid hydrolysiscontenidoof corn stover. Kinetic, thermodynamics and characterization

Abstract

Acid hydrolysis at high temperature is a technique to pretreat and produce monomeric sugars from lignocelluloses; however,its main disadvantage is the production of inhibitory aldehydes. In this paper, reducing sugars production was studied by acid hydrolysis of corn stover employing 2.2 M hydrochloric acid solution and low temperature range (60 - 80 °C). Experimental data were great fitted to different kinetic models, thermodynamic parameters were calculated from first order, Saeman and Saeman biphasic kinetic models, rate constants showed similar values between each other demonstrating that corn stover hydrolysis is an endothermic and non-spontaneous process capable to produce thermodynamically stable products. FTIR and SEM analyses showed the breaking of lignocellulosic matrix and the depolymerization of polysaccharides after acid treatment. The proposed operational conditions were adequate to produce reducing sugars avoiding their decomposition into inhibitory aldehydes.