Acid Hydrolysis

Utilizing the well-accepted method of acid hydrolysis, a variety of biomass feedstocks can be converted to fermentable sugars for the production of ethanol, chemicals, diesel fuel, and other products. Southern Research offers extensive expertise in the development, operation, and evaluation of acid hydrolysis processes for the conversion of woody biomass to fermentable sugars for a variety of applications.

Our acid hydrolysis process development and evaluation capabilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Development and operation of hydrolysis processes
• Development of standard operating procedures for all pilot plant equipment and processes
• Development and validation of methods for quantifying dissolved solids (sugars)
• Evaluation of methods for quantifying HCI in the presence of sugars
• Development of methods for determining acid concentration and chloride concentration in lignin
• Operation and evaluation of processes to extract HCI from hydrolysate (sugar) solutions
• Evaluation of process equipment to recover acid and concentrate sugars