Recycled ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate pretreatment for enhancing enzymatic saccharification of softwood without cellulose regeneration

Author

• Umi Hamidah
  • 1
  • 2
• Takuya Arakawa
  • 1
• Yin Ying H’ng
  • 1
• Akiko Nakagawa-izumi
  • 1
  Email author
• Masanori Kishino
  • 3

1. 1.Graduate School of Life and Environmental SciencesUniversity of TsukubaTsukubaJapan
2. 2.Research Unit for Clean TechnologyIndonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI)BandungIndonesia
3. 3.Forest Products Research Institute, Hokkaido Research OrganizationAsahikawaJapan

Original Article

First Online: 12 December 2017

Abstract

In this work, pretreatment of wood meals using a recycled ionic liquid (IL), 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([Emim]Ac), enhanced glucose liberation by enzymatic saccharification, without dissolution of cellulose and lignin. In contrast, previous studies on IL pretreatment have mostly focused on lignocellulosic dissolution to regenerate cellulose and removing lignin. Softwood (Cryptomeria japonica) was pretreated with [Emim]Ac at 60–100 °C for 2–8 h without collecting regenerated cellulose. The pretreatment did not have a strong effect on wood component dissolution (weight of residues: 91.7–98.8%). The residues contained relatively high amounts of lignin (26.6–32.6%) with low adsorption of [Emim]Ac (0.9–2.7%). Meanwhile, the crystallinity index (CrI) of cellulose in the wood was significantly reduced by pretreatment, from 50.9% to 28.4–37.1%. In spite of the high lignin contents in the residues, their glucose liberation values by enzymatic saccharification using a cellulase mixture were 3–16 times greater than that of untreated wood. A good correlation was found between the saccharification effectiveness of pretreated samples and the CrI. Although lignin dissolved in [Emim]Ac continued to accumulate after repeated use of [Emim]Ac, the pretreatment was found to be effective for three consecutive cycles without the need to remove the dissolved materials.

Acknowledgements

The study was partly supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research (JP26660138) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI.

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© The Japan Wood Research Society 2017

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