A 62.5% (w/w) CaCl2 solution was used in the microwave pretreatment of corn stover. The central composite design (CCD) of response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to design and optimize the CaCl2-assisted microwave pretreatment (CaCl2-pretreatment). Temperature and time were the main factors affecting the enzymatic digestibility of corn stover. After CaCl2-pretreatment, hemicellulose degradation reached 85.90%, the specific surface area (SSA) increased by 168.93%, cellulose crystallinity index (CrI) decreased by 13.91% compared to untreated corn stover. The optimal conditions for glucose production with the CaCl2-pretreatment obtained by CCD were, 162.1 degrees C, 12 min and solid-to-liquid ratio 10% (w/v). Under these conditions, the enzymatic hydrolysis ratio of cellulose was 90.66% and glucose recovery was 65.47%. This novel process achieved the temperature of about 160 degrees C necessary for lignocellulose pretreatment under atmospheric pressure using the cheap calcium chloride as the heating medium. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.