| Summary: | The effects on sugar yields of acid concentration, temperature, and time in the first (decrystallization) stage of a two-stage concentrated sulfuric acid hydrolysis of softwood (Scots pine) and hardwood (aspen) were investigated. The study focused on the multi-variable effects of the decrystallization stage and applied a statistical modeling with Central Composite Face (CCF) design of experiment to systematically study and simulate the effect of decrystallization reaction conditions on hydrolysis products and degradation products. The models were statistically significant and showed that for both aspen and pine, the reaction temperature and acid concentration were the most influential variables on monosaccharides and total sugar yields compared to the reaction time. The interaction between temperature and acid concentration was the most important for both species. The sugar degradation products were much influenced by the decrystallization temperature on both aspen and pine. The models were validated by a test-set and showed a good agreement between the experimental and predicted values. The optimum predicted total sugar yields were 56 g / 100 g d.w for aspen (74% theoretical) and 64 g / 100 g d.w for pine (91% theoretical).
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