Abstract
We investigated the potential of two terrestrial biomass invasive species in the United-Kingdom as lignocellulosic biofuel feedstocks: Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica) and Rhododendron (Rhododendron ponticum). We demonstrate that a pretreatment technique using a low-cost protic ionic liquid, the ionoSolv process, can be used for such types of plant species considered as waste, to allow their integration into a biorefinery. N,N,N-Dimethylbutylammonium hydrogen sulfate ([DMBA][HSO4]) was able to fractionate the biomass into a cellulose-rich pulp and a lignin stream at high temperatures (150–170 °C) and short reaction times (15–60 minutes). More than 70–80% of the subsequent cellulose was hydrolysed into fermentable sugars, which were fermented into the renewable energy vector bioethanol.
Highlights
Lignocellulosic or ‘woody’ biomass is the most abundant source of renewable feedstock on Earth
We investigated the potential of two terrestrial biomass invasive species in the United-Kingdom as lignocellulosic biofuel feedstocks: Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica) and Rhododendron (Rhododendron ponticum)
Japanese Knotweed (JPK) and Rhododendron (RHDN) samples were rst analysed for their glucan, hemicellulose and lignin content (Fig. 1), which have not been previously reported in the literature
Summary
Lignocellulosic or ‘woody’ biomass is the most abundant source of renewable feedstock on Earth. Compositional analysis was carried out according to a published procedure by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).[51] Brie y, 300 mg (calculated on dry matter basis) of biomass or recovered pulp was incubated with 3 mL of 72% sulfuric acid at 30 C for 1 hour and diluted with 84 mL distilled water before being autoclaved for 1 hour at 121 C. The determination of the total sugar content was carried out using an HPLC system with a Refractive Index Detector (RID) (Shimadzu, Aminex HPX-87P from Bio rad, 300 Â 7.8 mm, puri ed water as mobile phase at 0.6 mL minÀ1, column temperature 85 C, 25 minute run). The ionic liquid liquor compositional analysis was carried out using a Shimadzu HPLC system (RID, Aminex HPX-87H Bio rad column, 300 Â 7.8 mm) with 0.005 M H2SO4 as mobile phase (0.6 mL minÀ1). Yields of ethanol were standardized to the amount of biomass used for each sample to obtain the hydrolysates
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