Sugarcane bagasse pretreatment using three imidazolium-based ionic liquids; mass balances and enzyme kinetics

摘要

BackgroundEffective pretreatment is key to achieving high enzymatic saccharification efficiency in processing lignocellulosic biomass to fermentable sugars, biofuels and value-added products. Ionic liquids (ILs), still relatively new class of solvents, are attractive for biomass pretreatment because some demonstrate the rare ability to dissolve all components of lignocellulosic biomass including highly ordered (crystalline) cellulose. In the present study, three ILs, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([C4mim]Cl), 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([C2mim]Cl), 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([C2mim]OAc) are used to dissolve/pretreat and fractionate sugarcane bagasse. In these IL-based pretreatments the biomass is completely or partially dissolved in ILs at temperatures greater than 130°C and then precipitated by the addition of an antisolvent to the IL biomass mixture. For the first time mass balances of IL-based pretreatments are reported. Such mass balances, along with kinetics data, can be used in process modelling and design.