Any new possibilites for biomass treatments ?

To convert lignocellulosic biomass to simple sugars, conventional methods use acid or base at high temperatures and pressures or combined enzymatic saccharification, which require large amounts of energy inputs or take long time.

Since the main barrier is the interference of lignin and the crystal structure of cellulose,one approach may be to utilize cellulose swelling agents to destroy the cristal structure; the other one may be to use lignin dissolving agents to remove part of lignin. As a result, the rate of saccharification will be speeded up from either of the treatments.