Heteropoly acid catalyzed hydrolysis of glycogen to glucose

•Hydrothermal, microwave and sonication based methods of hydrolysis.•Heteropoly acids are green catalysts for glycogen hydrolysis.•Glycogen from cyanobacteria is demonstrated as a potential feedstock for glucose.

Complete conversion of glycogen to glucose is achieved by using H3PW12O40·nH2O (HPW) and H4SiW12O40·nH2O (HSiW) as catalysts for the hydrolysis under optimized hydrothermal conditions (mass fraction of catalyst 2.4%, 373 K and 2 h reaction time). The reusability of the catalyst (HPW) was demonstrated. In addition to carrying out the glycogen hydrolysis in an autoclave, other novel methods such as microwave irradiation and sonication have also been investigated. At higher mass fraction of the heteropoly acids (10.5%), glycogen could be completely converted to glucose under microwave irradiation. Sonication of an aqueous solution of glycogen in the presence of HPW and HSiW also yielded glucose. Thus, heteropoly acids are efficient, environmentally friendly and reusable catalysts for the conversion of glycogen to glucose.