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Ionic Liquid Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass for Enhanced Enzymatic Delignification

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Application of Ionic Liquids in Biotechnology

Part of the book series: Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology ((ABE,volume 168))

Abstract

Ionic liquids (ILs), a potentially attractive “green,” recyclable alternative to environmentally harmful volatile organic compounds, have been increasingly exploited as solvents and/or cosolvents and/or reagents in a wide range of applications, including pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass for further processing. The enzymatic delignification of biomass to degrade lignin, a complex aromatic polymer, has received much attention as an environmentally friendly process for clean separation of biopolymers including cellulose and lignin. For this purpose, enzymes are generally isolated from naturally occurring fungi or genetically engineered fungi and used in an aqueous medium. However, enzymatic delignification has been found to be very slow in these conditions, sometimes taking several months for completion. In this chapter, we highlight an environmentally friendly and efficient approach for enzymatic delignification of lignocellulosic biomass using room temperature ionic liquids (ILs) as (co)solvents or/and pretreatment agents. The method comprises pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass in IL-aqueous systems before enzymatic delignification, with the aim of overcoming the low delignification efficiency associated with low enzyme accessibility to the solid substrate and low substrate and product solubilities in aqueous systems. We believe the processes described here can play an important role in the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass—the most abundant renewable biomaterial in the world—to biomaterials, biopolymers, biofuels, bioplastics, and hydrocarbons.

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Acknowledgment

We thank Edanz Group (www.edanzediting.com/ac) for editing a draft of this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chemical Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia

    Muhammad Moniruzzaman

  2. Center of Research in Ionic Liquids (CORIL), Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia

    Muhammad Moniruzzaman

  3. Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Masahiro Goto

  4. Center for Future Chemistry, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Masahiro Goto

Authors
  1. Muhammad Moniruzzaman
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  2. Masahiro Goto
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Correspondence to Masahiro Goto .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Research on Green Sustainable Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Tottori University, Tottori, Japan

    Toshiyuki Itoh

  2. Department of Biological Engineering, College of Engineering, Inha University, Incheon, Korea (Republic of)

    Yoon-Mo Koo

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Moniruzzaman, M., Goto, M. (2018). Ionic Liquid Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass for Enhanced Enzymatic Delignification. In: Itoh, T., Koo, YM. (eds) Application of Ionic Liquids in Biotechnology. Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology, vol 168. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/10_2018_64

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