Abstract
Despite only recently becoming available in the quantities required for solvent usage, the cellulose-derived solvent, named Cyrene, has gained significant attention in green chemistry in recent years. To fulfill the sustainability criteria of future biorefineries, a novel renewable biomass pretreatment using Cyrene and water was developed for the first time. Results showed that Cyrene has high potential as a green pretreatment solvent in terms of lignin fractionation/recovery and sugar release in the follow-up enzymatic hydrolysis. The mechanism of this pretreatment was revealed by investigating the structural characteristics of pretreated biomass, and the recovered lignin was also fully characterized to assess its valorization potential. Results indicated that Cyrene pretreatment could be performed at a mild condition (120 °C) to reduce the lignin condensation and the cleavage of β-O-4 linkages without compromising lignin removal and the following sugar platform. The successful utilization of this cellulose-derived solvent in pretreatment will further contribute to the realization of a "closed-loop" biorefinery process.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2862-2872 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Green Chemistry |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 7 2020 |
Funding
This work is supported by “Agriculture and Food Research Initiative – Sustainable Bioenergy and Bioproducts Challenge Area” [grant no. USDA-NIFA-AFRI-006352/project accession no. 1015189] from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). YP acknowledges the support provided by the Center for Bioenergy Innovation (CBI), a U.S. DOE Bioenergy Research Center supported by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research in the DOE Office of Science. The views and opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Bioproducts Challenge Area” | |
| DOE Office of Science | |
| Office of Biological and Environmental Research | |
| UT-Battelle | DE-AC05-00OR22725 |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
| Center for Bioenergy Innovation |