Effect of removing hemicellulose and lignin synchronously under mild conditions on enzymatic hydrolysis of corn stover

P-toluene sulfonic acid (PTSA) was utilized to pretreat corn stover. Changes in morphology and structure of untreated and pretreated samples were analyzed by ESEM, TEM, BET, XRD and SXT. The characterization results demonstrated that PTSA pretreatment could markedly improve cellulase accessibility to cellulose because of the removal of lignin and hemicellulose simultaneously. The maximum glucose yield (67.2%) with an enzyme loading of 5FPU•g−1 substrate was achieved after the sample was the pretreated at 80 °C for 10 min with 71.0 wt% PTSA. P-toluene sulfonic acid pretreatment was a valid method to improve the enzymatic hydrolysis performance of cellulose in corn stover at low reaction temperature with a short reaction time.