Abstract
Pretreatment is very important for the efficient production of value-added products from lignocellulosic biomass. However, traditional pretreatment methods have several disadvantages, including low efficiency and high pollution. This article gives an overview on the applications of ionic liquids (ILs) and IL-based solvent systems in the pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass. It is divided into three parts: the first deals with the dissolution of biomass in ILs and IL-based solvent systems; the second focuses on the fractionation of biomass using ILs and IL-based solvent systems as solvents; the third emphasizes the enzymatic saccharification of biomass after pretreatment with ILs and IL-based solvent systems.
Highlights
The search for renewable feedstocks to produce fine chemicals, materials and fuels has become an important goal, with the ever-growing energy demands and environmental concerns, together with the diminishing fossil fuel reserves [1,2]
This article gives an overview on the applications of ionic liquids (ILs) and IL-based solvent systems in the pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass, including the dissolution of biomass, the fractionation of biomass and the enzymatic saccharification of pretreated biomass
Liu et al evaluated the cellulose-dissolving ability of 357 ILs formed from 17 cations and 21 anions by COSMO-RS [26]. These results suggested that the suitable ILs for cellulose dissolution consist of cations including methylimidazolium+, pyridinium+, ethylmorpholinium+ and methylpyrrolidinium+ which can be functioned by ethyl, allyl, 2-hydroxylethyl, 2-methoxyethyl and acryloyloxypropyl, and anions including Ac−, Dec−, HCOO−, Cl−, BEN− (Benzoate), DMPO4 −, DEP−, DBP−
Summary
The search for renewable feedstocks to produce fine chemicals, materials and fuels has become an important goal, with the ever-growing energy demands and environmental concerns, together with the diminishing fossil fuel reserves [1,2]. The formed products, such as syngas, heat, power, bio-fuels, fertilizer and biochar, can be integrated into the corresponding industrial processes, respectively [6,7,8] Another strategy is firstly fractionating lignocellulosic biomass into cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin, and converting the three biopolymers into some important intermediates and/or final products [9,10]. The latter strategy is well-designed according to the composition and structure of biomass, as it may achieve more complete utilization of biomass and provide more abundant products than the former [10]. This article gives an overview on the applications of ionic liquids (ILs) and IL-based solvent systems in the pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass, including the dissolution of biomass, the fractionation of biomass and the enzymatic saccharification of pretreated biomass
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