Pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass with renewable cholinium ionic liquids: Biomass fractionation, enzymatic digestion and ionic liquid reuse

Pretreatment of lignocelluloses is a key step in the biorefinery for production of biofuels and valuable platform chemicals. In this work, various lignocelluloses were pretreated using cholinium ionic liquids (ILs) that are wholly composed of biomaterials, and fractionated into carbohydrate-rich materials (CRMs) and lignin-rich materials (LRMs). Cholinium ILs were found to be effective pretreatment solvents for grass lignocelluloses as well as eucalyptus, resulting in significant improvements in the glucose yields (58-75%) in subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis, while they were inefficient to make pine susceptible to biodegradation. Approximately 46% of lignin in native rice straw was fractionated as LRM after pretreatment using cholinium argininate ([Ch][Arg]). [Ch][Arg] showed excellent recyclability, and the total recovery was as high as 75% after reused for 8 cycles. Besides, rice straw pretreated by the recycled IL remained highly digestible, and good glucose yields (63-75%) were achieved after its enzymatic hydrolysis.