Sustainable green pretreatment approach to biomass-to-energy conversion using natural hydro-low-transition-temperature mixtures

Chung Loong Yiin; Armando T Quitain; Suzana Yusup; Yoshimitsu Uemura; Mitsuru Sasaki; Tetsuya Kida

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2018.04.039

Sustainable green pretreatment approach to biomass-to-energy conversion using natural hydro-low-transition-temperature mixtures

Bioresour Technol. 2018 Aug:261:361-369. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2018.04.039. Epub 2018 Apr 12.

Authors

Chung Loong Yiin¹, Armando T Quitain², Suzana Yusup¹, Yoshimitsu Uemura¹, Mitsuru Sasaki³, Tetsuya Kida⁴

Affiliations

¹ Biomass Processing Cluster, Centre for Biofuel and Biochemical Research, Chemical Engineering Department, Institute for Sustainable Living, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610 Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia.
² Department of Applied Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of Advanced Science and Technology, Kumamoto University, 2-39-1 Kurokami, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto 860-8555, Japan; College of Cross-Cultural and Multidisciplinary Studies, Kumamoto University, 2-40-1 Kurokami, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto 860-8555, Japan. Electronic address: quitain@kumamoto-u.ac.jp.
³ Institute of Pulsed Power Science, Kumamoto University, 2-39-1 Kurokami, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto 860-8555, Japan.
⁴ Department of Applied Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of Advanced Science and Technology, Kumamoto University, 2-39-1 Kurokami, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto 860-8555, Japan.

PMID: 29680702
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2018.04.039

Abstract

Natural hydro-low-transition-temperature mixtures (NH-LTTMs) tend to be the most favorable next-generation green solvents for biomass pretreatment, as they are cheap and environmental friendly. The amount of water bound into the NH-LTTMs greatly affected their thermal stability, whereby the highest thermal stability was observed with the water content of 7.6 wt%. It is worth noting that, the highest molar transition energy of NH-LTTMs (47.57 kcal mol^-1), which indicated the highest solubility, was optimized with the molar ratio of hydrogen bond donor (HBD)-hydrogen bond acceptor (HBA)-water (2:4:3) at a temperature of 60 °C. Hydrogen bonding networks of the NH-LTTMs, which led to the dissolution of biomass, were confirmed by the alteration in the peaks of the involved bonds and resonance signal to lower field through FTIR and ¹H NMR spectra, respectively. The components evidenced in high-resolution mass spectra of extracted lignin showed its high potential to be valorized into useful fuels and chemicals.

Keywords: Biomass-to-energy; Green solvent; Malic acid; Microwave; Pretreatment.

MeSH terms

Bioelectric Energy Sources*
Biomass
Lignin
Solvents
Temperature
Transition Temperature*

Substances

Solvents
Lignin