Hemicellulose in lignocellulosic biomass can be depolymerized into fermentable sugars using dilute acid pretreatment. However, this pretreatment results in the production of degradation compounds that inhibit subsequent hydrolysis and fermentations steps. Understanding the effect of pretreatment processing parameters on hemicellulose depolymerization could possibly result in minimization of degradation compounds. We report on depolymerization studies of in-house-purified birchwood xylan oligomers, namely, xylobiose, xylotriose, and xylotetraose, and on commercially available xylose, furfural, and formic acid. On the basis of the current study, the optimum hydrolysis conditions were at temperatures between 120 and 130 degrees C and acid concentrations between 0.6 and 1.0 v/v%, where carbohydrate monomers were maximized, and degradation products were minimized. These results indicate that it is possible to improve hemicellulose-to-xylose conversion efficiency while minimizing degradation product generation, reducing detoxification requirements.