Cellulose consists of amorphous and crystalline regions. It is the crystalline regions which may be
exploited to produce nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC). In order to extract nanocrystalline cellulose from
native cellulose, sulfuric acid hydrolysis is typically used. The amorphous regions of cellulose are
hydrolyzed and degraded into soluble products while the crystalline regions remain intact. In an effort
to make the NCC extraction process more feasible, a new process was developed to recover and utilize
the hydrolyzed regions of cellulose as a byproduct. The acid hydrolyzed amorphous regions were
separated and then recovered (regenerated) into solid particles. XRD data revealed that the recovered
material is characteristic of cellulose II. Hydrolysis conditions were optimized to maximize the yield of
the recovered material and at the same time produce NCC material. Preliminary experiments showed
yield values of approximately 61% for the cellulose I crystalline portions and values of about 21.7% for the
recovered material (cellulose II). Enzymatic hydrolysis experiments of the recovered material revealed
high susceptibility to enzymatic hydrolysis which makes it a promising source for biofuels production.