Production and extraction of sugars from switchgrass hydrolyzed in ionic liquids

摘要

BackgroundThe use of Ionic liquids (ILs) as biomass solvents is considered to be an attractive alternative for the pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass. Acid catalysts have been used previously to hydrolyze polysaccharides into fermentable sugars during IL pretreatment. This could potentially provide a means of liberating fermentable sugars from biomass without the use of costly enzymes. However, the separation of the sugars from the aqueous IL and recovery of IL is challenging and imperative to make this process viable.