, Volume 3, Issue 2, pp 123-133 Date: 02 May 2010  Recovery of
Sugars from Ionic Liquid Biomass Liquor by Solvent Extraction
The dissolution of biomass into ionic liquids (ILs) has been
shown to be a promising alternative biomass pretreatment
technology, facilitating faster breakdown of cellulose through
the disruption of lignin and the decrystallization of cellulose.
Both biological and chemical catalysis have been employed to
enhance the conversion of IL-treated biomass polysaccharides
into monomeric sugars. However, biomass-dissolving ILs, sugar
monomers, and smaller carbohydrate oligomers are all soluble in
water. This reduces the overall sugar content in the recovered
solid biomass and complicates the recovery and recycle of the
IL. Near-complete recovery of the IL and the holocellulose is
essential for an IL-based pretreatment technology to be
economically feasible. To address this, a solvent extraction
technique, based on the chemical affinity of boronates such as
phenylboronic acid and naphthalene-2