Enhanced Hydrolysis of Hemicellulose in Corn Stalk by Alkali Pretreatment

Alkali hydrolysis was used as a method of decomposing hemicellulose in corn stalk in this paper. The effects of NaOH concentration, hydrolysis time and hydrolysis temperature in the pretreatment on the degradation of hemicellulose in corn stalk were investigated. In addition, the yields of reducing-sugar and alkali hydrolysis corn stalk were discussed. The experimental results showed that the process of alkali hydrolysis had positive effect on the removal of hemicellulose in corn stalk and the whole process almost finished in 3h. The maximum reducing-sugar yield was 7.2% by the pretreatment with 20% NaOH for 6 h at 90°C, and 6.6% under the condition of 15% NaOH for 3h at 90°C, which was slightly lower than the maximum reducing-sugar yield, but the alkali charge and hydrolysis time dramatically reduced. So it was clarified that the best pretreatment condition was 15% NaOH for 3h at 90°C, and also this method is easy to applied in the alkaline pulping process.