Abstract
The modified supercritical water treatment method is adopted for hydrolysis of wood powder, Populus alba$\times$glandulosa. This modified method is containing 0.05% HCl or $HNO_3$ as acid catalyst. The supercritical water treatment(SCW) was performed for 1 min. with $350^{\circ}C$, $380^{\circ}C$, $400^{\circ}C$ and $425^{\circ}C$, respectively, under 230 $\pm$ 10 atm using continuous flow system. When acid was added to powder prepared for SCW treatment, the yields of monomeric sugars were significantly increased. The lignin remained after supercritical treatment was applied to gel permeation chromatography(GPC) for molecular weight distribution analysis. Compared to the lignin produced from SCW treatment without acid catalyst, the average molecular weight of lignin compounds treated with acid was clearly decreased. Particularly, Mn/Mw ratio is decreased. This result shows supercritical water treatment of wood powder can change the molecular weight of lignin to small size. However, it is necessary to be further studied for exactly characterizing the lignin produced from supercritical water treatment.