Abstract
Recently, acidic ionic liquid water mixtures based on the hydrogen sulfate anion have been shown to effectively extract lignin from lignocellulosic biomass.
Highlights
It is imperative to develop cost-competitive processes for the production of sustainable liquid fuels and chemicals
The Miscanthus gigantheus biomass utilised in this study contained 22.4% acid-insoluble and 4.0% acid-soluble lignin
The lignin was extracted using a solution of 80 wt% 1-butylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate and 20 wt% water at 120 °C for between 1 h and 24 h
Summary
It is imperative to develop cost-competitive processes for the production of sustainable liquid fuels and chemicals. A number of studies have demonstrated that the conversion of cellulose to biofuels benefits from reduced lignin content and alterations in lignin structure.[15,16] Early separation of lignin from the carbohydrates is desirable for obtaining high quality lignins, which is thought to greatly enhance the economic returns of a biorefinery.[17] Separation of lignin and cellulose can only be achieved by a limited number of pretreatment technologies The majority of these dissolve the lignin while they leave cellulose, the main carbohydrate component, as a solid. PCA is attached to the lignin via ester bonds with the γ-hydroxyl group of the lignin side chain.[18] The core lignin polymer contains a wide range of linkages, such as β-O-4, β-5, β–β, 5–5, 4-O5, and β-1, with no regular inter-unit repeating structure observed.[19,20,21] In addition, lignin carbohydrate complex (LCC) linkages occur in grasses These form during lignification between ferulic acid (FA) containing hemicellulose (feruloyted arabinoxylan) and the nascent lignin. We chose the representative ionic liquid 1-butylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate ([HC4im][HSO4]) as pretreatment solvent, an Ionosolv IL previously shown to have efficacy in biomass deconstruction.[25]
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