Comparative study of single stage and two-stage pretreatments on corn stover: A kinetic assessment

Abstract

The effects of two-stage pretreatment consisting of tepid water (first stage) and FeCl3 (second stage) pretreatments on hemicellulose hydrolysis were investigated. A kinetic comparison between the single stage (FeCl3-only pretreatment) and the two-stage pretreatment was evaluated. Compared with single stage pretreatment, the two-stage pretreatment decreased the activation energy Ea of hemicellulose hydrolysis by 38.3% and decreased the optimal reaction time by 34.8%. Besides, the xylose content increased by 14.9% and the catalyst dosage decreased by 31.9% in the two-stage pretreatment. This study provided an efficient pretreatment process for hemicellulose hydrolysis.