The reported high efficiency for cellulose solvation,1  as a major wood component, by ionic liquids (ILs) has afforded new processing opportunities whereby wood itself can be effectively solvated2  and processed accordingly. In addition, ILs such as [emim][OAc],3  offer such effective cellulose solvation capabilities that they are now considered very attractive for industrial application. However, questions still remain as to their viability, due to poor recyclability. As such, we present extensive recent results into the next generations of recyclable ILs for lignocellulose processing, such as the development of 'distillable' ILs4 that are still capable of dissolving cellulose and new progress in the phase-separation of ILs after lignocellulose processing.1. Swatloski, et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2002 , 124:4974-4975.2. Kilpel�inen, et al., J. Agric. Food Chem, 2007 , 55:9142-9148.3. Wilkes, et al., J. Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun., 1992 , 965-967.4. King, et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2011  , 50:6301-6305.

Development of recyclable ionic liquids for lignocellulose processing

245th National Meeting (2013)

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