Quantitative acid hydrolysis (QAH)
To determine the acid pre-treatment efficiency, a quantitative
acid hydrolysis for the total extraction of sugars was performed
and the results obtained compared to those of the disruption essays.
This method consists in a two stage hydrolysis, is commonly
used in lignocellulosic materials (Hoebler et al., 1989), and has
been previously used in microalgae biomass by Takeda (1996).
The first hydrolysis, sulfuric acid at 76% m v1 at 30 C for 1 h, attacks
the polysaccharide fibers making them soluble, and the second,
sulfuric acid 4% m v1
, at 120 C for 1 h, hydrolyses the sugar
polymers yielding sugar monosaccharides with minimum degradation