Design of low-cost ionic liquids for lignocellulosic biomass pretreatment

The cost of ionic liquids (ILs) is one of the main impediments to IL utilization in the cellulosic biorefinery, especially in the pretreatment step. In this study, a number of ionic liquids were synthesized with the goal of optimizing solvent cost and stability whilst demonstrating promising process...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Green chemistry : an international journal and green chemistry resource : GC 2015-01, Vol.17 (3), p.1728-1734
Main Authors: George, Anthe, Brandt, Agnieszka, Tran, Kim, Zahari, Shahrul MSNizan S, Klein-Marcuschamer, Daniel, Sun, Ning, Sathitsuksanoh, Noppadon, Shi, Jian, Stavila, Vitalie, Parthasarathi, Ramakrishnan, Singh, Seema, Holmes, Bradley M, Welton, Tom, Simmons, Blake A, Hallett, Jason P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acetates
Benchmarking
Cost engineering
Economics
Ionic liquids
Pretreatment
Refining
Sulfates
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Summary:The cost of ionic liquids (ILs) is one of the main impediments to IL utilization in the cellulosic biorefinery, especially in the pretreatment step. In this study, a number of ionic liquids were synthesized with the goal of optimizing solvent cost and stability whilst demonstrating promising processing potential. To achieve this, inexpensive feedstocks such as sulfuric acid and simple amines were combined into a range of protic ionic liquids containing the hydrogen sulfate [HSO sub(4)] super(-) anion. The performance of these ionic liquids was compared to a benchmark system containing the IL 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate [C sub(2)C sub(1)im][OAc]. The highest saccharification yields were observed for the triethylammonium hydrogen sulfate IL, which was 75% as effective as the benchmark system. Techno-economic modeling revealed that this promising and yet to be optimized yield was achieved at a fraction of the processing cost. This study demonstrates that some ILs can compete with the cheapest pretreatment chemicals, such as ammonia, in terms of effectiveness and process cost, removing IL cost as a barrier to the economic viability of IL-based biorefineries.
ISSN:1463-9262
1463-9270
DOI:10.1039/c4gc01208a