Cooperative Effect in Carboxylic Acid Catalyzed Cellobiose Hydrolysis

Introduction Since glucose can be converted readily into many useful compounds, efficient conversion of cellulose to this building block is important to successful utilization of biomass for large-scale fuels and chemicals production, The conversion of cellulose to glucose is catalyzed by acid and by glycosidase enzymes. In the general acid catalyzed reaction, it has been shown that the rate of hydrolysis of cellobiose (a model compound for cellulose) is proportional to the proton concentration. Thus, organic acids, being weaker than inorganic acids and possess higher pKa’s, are less effective catalysts.