This study aimed to optimize the acid hydrolysis process on corn cob and determine the kinetics and activation energy for fermentable sugar yield. We sought to improve the efficiency of converting lignocellulosic biomass into fermentable sugars for biobutanol production. We characterized raw corn cob feedstock to determine its composition. We used Central Composite Design (CCD) within Response Surface Methodology (RSM) to model and optimize the effects of acid concentration, reaction time, and temperature on sugar yield. The RSM model proved highly significant and predicted that 2.3% vol/vol acid concentration, 52.33 minutes, and 111.28°C would yield 1722.21 mg/L of sugar. The hydrolysis followed first-order kinetics, with a rate constant of 0.1147 min⁻¹ at 115°C. The reaction exhibited an activation energy of 105.83 kJ/mol, indicating a significant energy barrier. Therefore, this study demonstrates that optimizing acid hydrolysis enhances the yield of fermentable sugar from valorized corn cob. It provides essential data for process scale-up in a biorefinery context
Egharevba et al. (Tue,) studied this question.