Ionic liquid pretreatment

The potential of ionic liquids to emerge as lignocellulosic biomass solvents and a viable biofuel pretreatment technology is discussed. Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant and renewable source of carbon on the planet. Lignocellulosic biomass can be derived from grasses grown as dedicated energy crops, wood and woody wastes, corn stover, rice and wheat straw, municipal solid waste, manure, and other sources. Ionic liquids are a relatively new class of solvents that are being developed from the early 1980s as environmentally friendly alternatives to organic solvents. The first commercial-scale applications of ionic liquids have been in the form of BASF's biphasic acid scavenging utilizing ionic liquids (BASIL) project for creating photoinitiator precursors for use in UV-curable coatings. The development of ionic liquids as a biomass pretreatment technology has been initiated to investigate and realize its potential