Supercritical ethanol as an enhanced medium for lignocellulosic biomass liquefaction: Influence of physical process parameters

The effective pre-treatment methods are required for the destruction of the complex biomass structure to economically produce high grade fuels and valuable platform chemicals. Ionic liquids have high potential for energy efficient biomass pre-treatment due to their low vapour pressure, emission profile, recyclability and tuneable properties; some ionic liquids can even be prepared from renewable biomass feedstocks. However, a number of issues currently impede the large scale uptake of ionic liquids including their cost of production, detailed understanding the macro, micro and molecular level deconstruction mechanisms which inhibits process optimisation and modelling, and the need for techno-economic astable sessment on large scale trials. So far, laboratory to bench scale IL pre-treatments of various lignocellulosic biomasses were studied by changing various process parameters where the aims were to investigate the biomass dissolution mechanism and understand the pre-treatment performance of ILs. This review outlines current research gaps and potential applications for ionic liquids in the destruction of biomass into its components followed by separation of lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose rich fractions.

Progress on the pre-treatment of lignocellulosic biomass employing ionic liquids

Separation and structural characterization of the value-added chemicals from mild degradation of lignites: A review

One-pot complete catalytic ethanolysis of Kraft lignin into C6–C10 chemicals, that is, aliphatic alcohols, esters, phenols, benzyl alcohols, and arenes, is achieved with a batch reactor over a number of supported molybdenum-based catalysts at 553 K in pure ethanol under autogenous pressure of 10.6 MPa. Metallic molybdenum, its carbide, and nitride all show remarkable activity, with the carbide and metallic catalysts giving the higher overall yields: 1640 and 1390 mg/g lignin, respectively. The major phases composing the catalysts are well-preserved after the reaction; however, the detection of Mo(V) species verifies the partial oxidation of molybdenum, which leads to the formation of the dissociative Mo species, such as molybdenum V ethoxide, in the fluid phase. Through the product analysis and catalyst characterization, the common route of lignin conversion to value added chemicals over the Mo-based catalyst is presented in detail. Kraft lignin is first fragmented into segments with m/z ∼ 700–1400 via a ...

Common Pathways in Ethanolysis of Kraft Lignin to Platform Chemicals over Molybdenum-Based Catalysts

Experimental study on modification of physicochemical characteristics of acidified coal by surfactants and ionic liquids

Thermal dissolution of Shenfu coal in different solvents

Kinetic analysis and modeling of coal pyrolysis with model-free methods

Co-liquefaction behavior of a sub-bituminous coal and sawdust

Microwave-assisted extraction of Xianfeng lignite in 1-butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium chloride

Thermal dissolution of lignite and liquefaction behaviors of its thermal dissolution soluble fractions

Chunxiu Pan

Papers

Thermal dissolution of Shenfu coal in different solvents

Kinetic analysis and modeling of coal pyrolysis with model-free methods

Co-liquefaction behavior of a sub-bituminous coal and sawdust

Microwave-assisted extraction of Xianfeng lignite in 1-butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium chloride

Thermal dissolution of lignite and liquefaction behaviors of its thermal dissolution soluble fractions