This work evaluates the efficiency of three deep eutectic solvents constituted of choline chloride and urea or glycerol or ethylene glycol in the pretreatment of the miscanthus in view of extracting cellulose. Analysis of experiments shows that basicity and polarity of the hydrogen bond donor of these DESs are directly related to the miscanthus solubility. The best efficient process was found using {Choline chloride/glycerol} mixture for the pretreatment at a temperature of 373 K and a duration of about 6 h. This may be explained by the fact that {Choline chloride/glycerol} pretreatment allows to obtain an amorphous cellulose. {Choline chloride/glycerol} was as efficiently as IL pretreatments with an ethanol production of about 72%. This study shows that Choline chloride based DESs pretreatment for biomass could be a key point to enhance the efficiency of biorefinery.
Keywords: Cellulose; Choline chloride; DES pretreatment; Ethanol production; Miscanthus.
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