LAUSR

Abstract Dilute acid hydrolysis of milled Pinus ponderosa (pinewood) was performed in a high-temperature high-pressure 300 ml SS316 Parr reactor to produce sacrificial electron donors for downstream photocatalytic H 2 generation. Samples of the hydrolysate withdrawn at regular time intervals were analysed for total organic carbon (TOC), sugars and organic compounds. The influence of acid type (HCl, H 2 SO 4 , and HNO 3 ) and its concentration, temperature, residence time and biomass loading on pinewood hydrolysis and release of the glucose and xylose sugars (GX) was investigated. Maximum GX sugar yield was obtained with 1 v/v% HCl hydrolysis of 6.66 wt% pinewood slurry at 180 °C for 120 min. The hydrolysate was treated with activated charcoal (AC) and photoreformed for H 2 generation using 1% Pt/TiO 2 catalyst. Under optimized reaction conditions, 8 consecutive photocatalytic cycles of the hydrolysate produced cumulative yield of 19.9 ml H 2 /g pinewood, which is 26 mol% of GX observed in the hydrolysate.