Hemicellulose decomposition and saccharides production from various plant biomass by sulfonated allophane catalyst

Typical biomass in Japan (bamboo, Japanese cedar and rice straw) were decomposed by using sulfonated allophane catalyst and hemicellulose in bamboo was preferentially decomposed to xylose. The maximum xylose yield was 40.9% (on the base of hemicellulose) in the reaction at 150 °C for 4.0 h. Mannose and xylose were mainly produced from Japanese cedar and arabinose was mainly produced from rice straw.