Pedro VERDÍA BARBARÁ1, Jason HALLETT1, Amir AL GHATTA1, Isabel FERNÁNDEZ ARTIME1
1Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
Lignocellulosic biomass is one of the most promising renewable feedstocks today thanks its high abundance and low cost. Its efficient conversion and valorization can help steer away from fossil fuels to produce energy and value-added products such as paper and textiles. To maximize the benefits offered by this sustainable feedstock and to be able to consider it a techno-economically viable alternative, it is necessary to fractionate it through a green and efficient biomass pretreatment technology so its three main components (cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) can be valorized separately.
The Ionosolv process, a state-of-the-art technology developed at Imperial College London, uses low-cost protic ionic liquids to achieve this goal. These simple, neoteric, easily recyclable solvents exhibit high thermal and chemical stability and a strong hydrolyzing power, which have proven to be critical features for the deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass. Despite the clear benefits of biomass pretreatments, one major challenge that can hinder the process is the condensation and reprecipitation of lignin onto the cellulose pulp during the process under certain conditions.
In this work, the effect of using surfactants as additives to the Ionosolv process was investigated, with the goal of preventing the condensation and redeposition of lignin. This could be a simple and efficient way to improve the fractionation of biomass with the double benefit of recovering a cellulosic pulp with higher purity and a less condensed lignin residue, opening new valorization possibilities for both streams.