Effect of inorganic salts and peroxide on degradation of corn stalks cellulose and hemicellulose treated by dilute acid

Pretreatment has been viewed as one of the most important operation steps in the bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol. In the study,inorganic salts and H2O2 were studied as promoter in the dilute acid pretreatment for the degradation of cellulose and hemicellulose in corn stover. The degradation rate constant and severity of the pretreatment reaction was also determined. The results showed that the pretreatment by inorganic salts and H2O2 were more effect than the only dilute acid pretreatment for the hemicellulose degradation and xylose yields;while the addition of inorganic salts and H2O2 gave no effect on the degradation of cellulose. The optimum conditions where the severity factor(R) was 0.2 gave a yield of 85% xylose. Under the conditions,the cellulose degradation was always low with only 10% of cellulose removal.