Combined tartaric acid sulfonation pretreatments of reeds to overcome the anti-degradation barrier of cellulose

Organic acid pretreatment is an effective method for decomposing hemicellulose in biomass, but it has the drawback of insufficient lignin removal. In this paper, we proposed a pretreatment method that combined organic acids with sulfonating agents to synergistically achieve the removal of hemicellulose and lignin, thereby promoting enzymatic hydrolysis and saccharification. The response surface methodology (RSM) results from a central composite design of experiments showed that the glucose yield of reeds was up to 86.68 % and the enzymatic efficiency was as high as 98.42 %, under the optimal conditions (19.11 % tartaric acid + 10.81 % NaHSO 3 ; 175 °C; 40 min). And the comparative results showed that the combination of tartaric acid/ NaHSO 3 (TAS) increased lignin removal by 41.94 % over single tartaric acid (TA) pretreatment of reed. This study presents a more efficient method for enhancing enzymatic hydrolysis and saccharification during the pretreatment of reed, with potential applications in the biorefinery industry. • Novel TA-sulfonation pretreatment shows synergistic effects on biomass processing. • RSM optimization performed using a central composite design for accurate modeling. • A glucose yield of 86.68 % and 98.42 % enzymatic efficiency were obtained. • Hydrolysis products yielded high concentrations of sodium lignosulfonate efficiently.