Structural changes in lignocellulosic biomass during activation with ionic liquids comprising 3-methylimidazolium cations and carboxylate anions

Preenaa Moyer; Keonhee Kim; Nourredine Abdoulmoumine; Stephen C Chmely; Brian K Long; Danielle Julie Carrier; Nicole Labbé

doi:10.1186/s13068-018-1263-0

Structural changes in lignocellulosic biomass during activation with ionic liquids comprising 3-methylimidazolium cations and carboxylate anions

Biotechnol Biofuels. 2018 Sep 27:11:265. doi: 10.1186/s13068-018-1263-0. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Preenaa Moyer^{1

2}, Keonhee Kim¹, Nourredine Abdoulmoumine², Stephen C Chmely¹, Brian K Long³, Danielle Julie Carrier², Nicole Labbé¹

Affiliations

¹ 1Center for Renewable Carbon, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996 USA.
² 2Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996 USA.
³ 3Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996 USA.

Abstract

Background: Lignocellulosic biomass requires either pretreatment and/or fractionation to recover its individual components for further use as intermediate building blocks for producing fuels, chemicals, and products. Numerous ionic liquids (ILs) have been investigated for biomass pretreatment or fractionation due to their ability to activate lignocellulosic biomass, thereby reducing biomass recalcitrance with minimal impact on its structural components. In this work, we studied and compared 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium formate ([AMIM][HCOO]) to the commonly used 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([EMIM][CH₃COO]) for its potential to activate hybrid poplar biomass and enable high cellulose and hemicellulose enzymatic conversion. Although [EMIM][CH₃COO] has been widely used for activation, [AMIM][HCOO] was recently identified to achieve higher biomass solubility, with an increase of 40% over [EMIM][CH₃COO].

Results: Since IL activation is essentially an early stage of IL dissolution, we assessed the recalcitrance of [EMIM][CH₃COO] and [AMIM][HCOO]-activated biomass through a suite of analytical tools. More specifically, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction showed that activation using [AMIM][HCOO] does not deacetylate hybrid poplar as readily as [EMIM][CH₃COO] and preserves the crystallinity of the cellulose fraction, respectively. This was supported by scanning electron microscopy and enzymatic saccharification experiments in which [EMIM][CH₃COO]-activated biomass yielded almost twice the cellulose and hemicellulose conversion as compared to [AMIM][HCOO]-activated biomass.

Conclusion: We conclude that the IL [AMIM][HCOO] is better suited for biomass dissolution and direct product formation, whereas [EMIM][CH₃COO] remains the better IL for biomass activation and fractionation.

Keywords: Acetate; Activation; Formate; Fractionation; Ionic liquids; Lignocellulosic biomass; Low severity; Pretreatment; [AMIM][HCOO]; [EMIM][CH3COO].