Environmental issues and shortage of fossil-based resources have increased the demands on alternative fuels, chemicals, and materials. Lignocellulosic biomass, a heterogeneous biopolymer mainly composed of polysaccharides (i.e., cellulose, hemicellulose) and a natural aromatic macromolecule (i.e., lignin), is a promising resource in these applications. Despite the enormous potential of lignocellulosic biomass as fossil fuel alternatives, biomass conversion is still challenging due to its recalcitrance factors. Biomass pretreatment has been developed to facilitate and maximize the conversion of biomass. Especially, to enhance the current conversion efficiency and expand the utilization of biomass from a single component (i.e., cellulose) to entire biomass components in the biorefinery concept, pretreatment solvent plays a critical role. Recent pretreatment solvents are developed to improve both the quality and quantity of all three components (i.e., cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin) by reducing the unwanted modification of hemicellulose and lignin during the processes. Also, sustainability and environmental impacts of the solvents such as toxicity, recyclability, biodegradability, energy consumption, and bio-derivability are considered. Technical features and obstacles of these pretreatment solvents will be presented with the remaining challenges and future perspectives.

Recent advances in biomass pretreatment solvent for biofuel production

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.