Deacetylation of N-acetylglucosamine

The invention provides methods of deacetylating N-acetylglucosamine by solid acid hydrolysis on a cation exchange resin. These methods advantageously reduce the amount of acid used and the need for acid recycle facilities. The isolated glucosamine salt produced is very clean, reducing or eliminating the need for further purification steps to decolorize or desalt the product. Using these methods, the number of crystallization steps required are minimized and the degradation of the N-acetylglucosamine in solution is significantly reduced leading to increased yield of high quality glucosamine.