Pretreatment using dilute acid is reported to be effective against a number of lignocellulosic feedstocks. High cellulose conversion rates, however, require harsh pretreatment processing conditions viz., 160-200oC using about 1% w/w sulfuric acid. Severe pretreatment conditions are known to a) degrade some of the sugars, b) generate compounds which inhibit downstream processing steps, and c) increase costs associated with reactor construction and waste disposal. To address these drawbacks, we explored the technical feasibility of using accessory compounds to reduce the severity of dilute acid pretreatment process conditions. The Phase I results demonstrated that the severity of three major process variables (acid concentration, temperature, and duration) can be significantly reduced by incorporating certain chemical compounds into the acid pretreatment reaction. These compounds can decrease the required acid concentration by 35%. Moreover, they enable a six-fold decrease in the duration of acid pretreatment and a more than 20oC reduction in the temperature. Another important finding was that the use of these chemicals makes available a significant fraction of cellulose for enzymatic hydrolysis.