Description

Biomass, as fuel source, is renewable, environmental friendly and abundant in nature. It is of great interest to produce green energy and bio-products from lignocellulose. The replacement of conventional organic solvents by a new generation of solvents that are less toxic, less flammable and less polluting is a major challenge for the chemical industry. The aim of this work is to study the solubility of biomass-based materials in ionic liquids in order to overcome the lack of experimental data on phase equilibria of {carbohydrate-ILs} mixtures. Solubility data were successfully correlated using NRTL and UNIQUAC thermodynamic models. The fundamental natures of the interaction between carbohydrates and ILs were investigated using ab initio calculations. The pretreatment of miscanthus with ILs resulted in the regeneration of amorphous, porous cellulose almost free of lignin, which is suitable for enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation processes. A successful ethanol production was obtained with an overall ethanol yield reached up to 150 g ethanol kg−1 miscanthus.

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