A two-stage process has been developed to decrease sugar degradation. In the first hydrolysis stage, the relatively easily hydrolysed hemicellulose is released under rather mild conditions. This enables the second acid hydrolysis step to proceed under harsher conditions without degrading the hemicellulose sugars to furfural, hydroxymethyl-furfural and other degradation products. Using a two-stage dilute acid hydrolysis process, recovery yields of as much as 70–98% of the xylose, galactose, mannose and arabinose from softwood have been reported. However, the yield of glucose was still low at 50%