Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Napoleon Ballroom C-D, 3rd fl (Sheraton New Orleans)
Lignocellulosic biomass must be pretreated prior to enzymatic hydrolysis to improve sugar yields and saccharification efficiency. Ionic liquid (IL) has shown great potential as a novel pretreatment technology with sugar yields as high as ~100%. However, to decrease production costs higher biomass loading is necessary in conjunction with efficient means of pumping pretreated biomass slurry. Here we investigate the viscosity of pretreated switchgrass slurry in ionic liquid as a function of solids loading. Viscosity measurements provide a detailed profile of biomass solubilization and the effects of high biomass loading.