Journal
BIOFUELS-UK
Volume 1, Issue 1, Pages 33-46Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.4155/BFS.09.5
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Funding
- Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy (DOE)
- US DOE, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research [DE-AC0205CH11231]
- DOE Great Lakes BioEnergy Research Center (DOE Office of Science BER) [BER DE-FC02-07ER64494]
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Background: The development of cost-competitive biofuels necessitates the realization of advanced biomass pretreatment technologies. Ionic liquids provide a basis for one of the most promising pretreatment technologies and are known to allow effective processing of cellulose and some biomass species. Results & discussion: Here, we demonstrate that the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium acetate, [C2mim][OAc], induces structural changes at the molecular level in the cell wall of Eucalyptus globulus. Deacetylation of xylan, acetylation of the lignin units, selective removal of guaiacyl units (increasing the syringyl: guaiacyl ratio) and decreased beta-ether content were the most prominent changes observed. Scanning electron microscopy images of the plant cell wall sections reveal extensive swelling during [C2mim][OAc] pretreatment. X-ray diffraction measurements indicate a change in cellulose crystal structure from cellulose I to cellulose II after [C2mim][OAc] pretreatment. Enzymatic saccharification of the pretreated material produced increased sugar yields and improved hydrolysis kinetics after [C2mim][OAc] pretreatment. Conclusion: These results provide new insight into the mechanism of ionic liquid pretreatment and reaffirm that this approach may be promising for the production of cellulosic biofuels from woody biomass.
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