Comprehensive utilization of the hydrolyzed productions from rice hull

Abstract The study based on pretreatment, hydrolyzation and separation processes with the raw material rice hull, provides a comprehensive utilization of the hydrolyzed productions, such as glucose (C 6 H 12 O 6 ) from cellulose, silica (SiO 2 ), and byproduct crystalline sodium sulfate (Na 2 SO 4 ·10H 2 O). The optimum hydrolysis conditions are as follows: the concentration of H 2 SO 4 is 72% (wt.%), the temperature is 50 °C, the ratio of H 2 SO 4 solution volume (mL) to the rice hull mass (g) is 10:1 and the time is 5 min, the glucose yield rate reaches 45.6% (wt.%). The concentration of glucose solution could be 0.1 g/mL after neutralization measured by ultraviolet spectrophotometer (UV–VIS). Silica powder was below 50 nm characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The main byproduct crystalline sodium sulfate was featured by XRD and photographs.