3-04: The technical advantages and challenges of ionic liquid-based biomass pretreatments

The dissolution and derivitization of cellulose in Ionic liquids (ILs) has been demonstrated at laboratory scale.  The use of ILs to totally dissolve lignocellulosics and to selectively dissolve lignin in biomass have also been reported.  Proposed methods of IL and biomass recovery based on anti-solvent addition complete descriptions of novel closed-loop IL-based biomass pretreatments that have advantages over more conventional processes.  For example, the IL-based processes are relatively rapid and are conducted at atmospheric pressure.  Furthermore, cellulosic fractions recovered from IL-based pretreatments are more amenable to enzymatic hydrolysis than those recovered from other pretreatments.  However, there remain several technical and economic barriers to the use of IL processes in industrial settings.  The technical advantages and challenges of ionic liquid-based biomass pretreatments are described.