Study on cellulose (96% crystalline) hydrolysis performance of sulfonated carbon catalyst in microwave-heated reactor at elevated temperatures

In this work, the combined effects of microwave reactor and sulfonated bamboo catalyst in the hydrolysis of previously untreated cellulose (96% of crystallinity with 3.61 nm average crystallite size) at higher temperature were studied. The synthesized catalyst was characterized by FTIR, XRD, SEM, elemental analysis, TGA coupled with mass spectrophotometer, ammonia temperatureprogrammed desorption, total acid content (titration method), and surface area analyzer (surface area, total pore volume, and pore size). The catlyst activity and selectivity was tested through hydrolysis of untreated crystalline cellulose, in which the conversion and the yield were analyzed by TOC and HPLC. The acid density of the prepared catalyst due to SO3H group was found to be 0.54 mmol/g with an elemental sulfur content of 2%. The maximum yield of glucose found was around 43.5% at a reaction temperature of 180 degrees C and 60 min of reaction time, using a microwave reactor. Similar conversion and glucose yield were attained in second run showing the reusable potential of the catalyst. Moreover, the combined effects of the catalyst and the microwave reactor gave a higher yield of glucose from crystalline cellulose. The catalyst has shown its potential to convert glucose further into platform chemicals like hydroxymethylfurfural, levulinic acid, and formic acid.