The abundant lignocellulosic biomass is a renewable resource for sustainable production of biofuels and chemicals. Biomass-derived sugars are generally deemed as essential intermediates of the efficient conversion of the biomass to the biofuels and chemicals. However, efficient sugar extraction from the biomass at low cost is still challenging. Heterogeneous saccharification of the biomass by enzymes proves to be low-efficiency without the energy- and cost-intensive pretreatment because of the poor accessibility of the inter- and intra-molecule bonded cellulose to the catalysts. In this work, a homogeneous hydrolysis of cellulose in molten salt hydrate with high sugar yield and short reaction time was reported. Cellulose could be dissolved in the molten salt hydrate (LiBr) in 5 min at 110 ºC. In the presence of small amount of HCl, unpretreated aspen was saccharified in the medium in 60 min with 82.5% sugar yield. The residual solid after the aspen saccharification was almost pure lignin, which has good potential for co-products. A clear sugar-salt separation was realized by the ion exclusion chromatography, enabling the downstream sugar utilization and salt regeneration and reuse.

Homogeneous saccharification of lignocellulosic biomass in molten salt hydrates

249th National Meeting (2015)

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