Volume 5: Innovative Solutions for Energy Transitions: Part IV

New Findings on the Delignification of Australian Rice Husk Using Low-cost Amino Acid Based Ionic Liquid Pobitra Halder, Sazal Kundu, Savankumar Patel, Rajarathinam Parthasarathy, Jorge Paz-Ferreiro, Kalpit Shah

Abstract

In this work, two choline-based low-cost ILs (i.e., [Ch][Gly] and [Ch][Cl]) were synthesised in laboratory and applied for the delignification treatment of “Rice Husk (RH)”, an abundantly available lignocellulosic biomass in Australia. The synthesised choline based ILs were compared with commercially available imidazolium based IL ([Emim][OAc]). Among the all ILs studied, [Ch][Gly] outperformed over others in terms of degree of delignification. In addition, it has been established for the first time that RCRM produced from the choline-based ILs has higher porosity, crystallinity and thermal stability compared to imidazolium based ILs. The findings from this work recommends that pre-treatment with choline-based ILs is highly favorable for the production of platform chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass.

Keywords low-cost ionic liquids, lignocellulosic biomass. pre-treatment. biofuels, biochemicals.