3.2. Influence of solid to liquid ratio on the reducing sugar production
In our earlier experiments, 0.2 S/L ratio released 435.6 mg of
sugars/10 g of corncobs when 0.5 M H2SO4 used as a catalyst
(Potumarthi et al., 2012). To know the effect of solid to liquid (S/
L) on corncob pretreatment, in the present study, S/L ratio
employed with dilute H2SO4 (0.05 M) and NaOH (0.05 M) at different
ratios (0.2–0.03) shown in Fig. 1. It is observed that at 0.05 S/L
ratio maximum sugars released was 350.12 mg/10 g of corncobs
with dilute acid (0.05 M). Decrement in the S/L ratio increased
the release of reducing sugars up to S/L (0.03) beyond this there
was a slight decrease in the sugar production. Consequently, S/L
(0.05) with 10 g of corncob and 200 ml of catalyst was used in further
experiments.
solid to liquid