advantageous for the further processing because less water has to be removed from the biomass slurry it has further appeared that enzymatic hydrolysis after this new method for pretreatment of lignocellulose is very effective and yields of more than 90 conversion into glucose and xylose can be obtained the obtained xylose can be reduced and used for the production of xylitol further some byproducts that would hamper the further hydrolysis and fermentation like furfural hmf acetic acid and levulinic acid are absent from or only present in low quantities in the resulting biomass slurry before superheated steam treatment the dried wheat straw 12 hrs 95 u00b0 c was pre impregnated in a h 2 so 4 solution for 3 hours at 60 u00b0 c and 8 dry matter concentration to obtain the desired h 2 so 4 concentration inside the fibres after impregnation free liquid was removed by filtration all steam treatments were carried out at 6 bara in the tno pilot laboratory super heated steam equipment after inserting wheat straw into the steam equipment this pressure can immediately be reached for exploring the effect of reaction conditions different temperatures sulphate concentrations and heating times were applied the effect of the treatment on the accessibility of.