The research on the acid hydrolysis of cellulose in the presence of ferrous ion

With absorbent cotton as raw material and with metal salt as co-catalyst, the method of normal pressure two-section acid hydrolysis is used to hydrolyze cellulose, The yield of reducing sugar was used as the index to evaluate the hydrolysis effect. The process condition are optimized as follows: the pretreatment section in 60% sulphuric acid at 60 ℃ for 3 hours, the ratio of acid-tosolid was 12∶1; the dilute acid hydrolysis, the ratio of water-to-solid was 180∶1, the hydrolysis tem- perature at 90 ℃ for 3 hours. The yield of total sugar in hydrolysate can reach 15.18%. The addition of co-catalyst in dilute acid hydrolysis stage apparently improves the yield of the total reducing sugar by about 30% in comparison with the dilute acid hydrolysis stage without co-catalyst, Fe2+ can promote the hydrolysis of cellulose to some extent and can inhibit the degradation of glucose effectively.