Production of monosaccharides from napier grass by hydrothermal process with phosphoric acid

The production of monosaccharides from napier grass was investigated in the presence of acid catalysts using the hydrothermal process. When the napier grass was treated with 3 wt.% phosphoric acid at 160 °C for 15 min, the xylose yield reached 10.3 wt.%, corresponding to 72.0% of the xylan in it, whereas glucose was hardly obtained. A combined process was then conducted using an 85 wt.% phosphoric acid treatment at 60 °C for 1 h followed by a hydrothermal treatment with 3 wt.% phosphoric acid. In the initial treatment with concentrated phosphoric acid the most of xylan was hydrolyzed to xylose, and the crystalline cellulose was converted to its amorphous form. The hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose was significantly enhanced during the following hydrothermal process with 3 wt.% phosphoric acid at 200 °C for 8 min. Consequently, 77.2% yield of xylose and 50.0% yield of glucose were obtained from the combined process.