The aim of present study was to obtain total reducing sugars (TRS) by hydrolysis in subcritical CO2-water from sugarcane bagasse pith (SCBP), the fibrous residue remaining after papermaking from sugarcane bagasse. The optimum hydrolysis conditions were evaluated by L-16(4(5)) orthogonal experiments. The TRS yield achieved 45.8% at the optimal conditions:200 degrees C, 40 min, 500 r min(-1), CO2 initial pressure of 1 MPa and liquid-to-solid ratio of 50:1. Fourier transform infrared spectrometry and two-dimensional heteronuclear single quantum coherence nuclear magnetic resonance were used to characterize hydrolysis liquor, treated and untreated SCBP, resulting in the removal of hemicelluloses to mainly produce xylose, glucose and arabinose during hydrolysis. The severity factors had no correlation to TRS yield, indicating that the simple kinetic processes of biomass solubilisation cannot perfectly describe the SCBP hydrolysis. The first-order kinetic model based on consecutive reaction was used to obtain rate constants, activation energies and pre-exponential factors. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.