Complete Chemical Hydrolysis of Cellulose into Fermentable Sugars through Ionic Liquids and Antisolvent Pretreatments

This work describes a relatively simple methodology for efficiently deconstructing cellulose into monomeric glucose, which is more easily transformed into a variety of platform molecules for the production of chemicals and fuels. The approach undertaken herein first involves the dissolution of cellu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:ChemSusChem 2014-12, Vol.7 (12), p.3467-3475
Main Authors: Morales-delaRosa, Silvia, Campos-Martin, Jose M., Fierro, Jose L. G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
biomass
carbohydrates
Carbohydrates - chemistry
Cellulose
Cellulose - metabolism
Fermentation
Glucose
Hydrolysis
Ionic Liquids
Ions
Liquids
Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
Solvents - chemistry
synthesis design
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Summary:This work describes a relatively simple methodology for efficiently deconstructing cellulose into monomeric glucose, which is more easily transformed into a variety of platform molecules for the production of chemicals and fuels. The approach undertaken herein first involves the dissolution of cellulose in an ionic liquid (IL), followed by a second reconstruction step aided by an antisolvent. The regenerated cellulose exhibited strong structural and morphological changes, as revealed by XRD and SEM analyses. These changes dramatically affect the hydrolytic reactivity of cellulose with dilute mineral acids. As a consequence, the glucose yield obtained from the deconstructed–reconstructed cellulose was substantially higher than that achieved through hydrolysis of the starting cellulose. Factors that affect the hydrolysis reaction include the type of cellulose substrate, the type of IL used in pretreatment, and the type of acid used in the hydrolysis step. The best results were obtained by treating cellulose with IL and using phosphotungstic acid (0.067 mol L−1) as a catalyst at 413 K. Under these conditions, the conversion of cellulose was almost complete (>99 %), with a glucose yield of 87 % after only 5 h of reaction. Back to basics: A relatively simple methodology for efficiently deconstructing cellulose into monomeric glucose, which is easier to transform into a variety of platform molecules for the production of chemicals and fuels, is described.
ISSN:1864-5631
1864-564X
DOI:10.1002/cssc.201402466