Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Ionic liquids pretreatment of biomass

Recently more research are conducted on Ionic liquids (< 140 C) pretreatment of biomass, demonstrating
  • Converts Cellulose I to cellulose II, improving cellulose digestibility
  • Deferulylation of biomass, removal of lignin
  •  Cellulose swelling, destruction of cellulose crystal
  •  Work for mixed feedstocks-flexibility on biomass resources

Recovering sugars from ILs has been alos investigated. More questions remain on IL pretreatment:
  • Is it effective on un-mill biomass such as wood chips and 1-2 inche agricultural residues?
  • What about the moisture of wet biomass (in reality, it is hard to dry the biomass with moisture content < 5%) on IL stability?
  • The recovery yield? Can be great than 99%?
  • Any inhibition or toxic on enzymes and fementation microorganisms?

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