title: Comparison of the impact of ionic liquid pretreatment on recalcitrance of agave bagasse and switchgrass.
abstract: Lignocellulose represents a sustainable source of carbon for transformation into biofuels. Effective biomass to sugar conversion strategies are needed to lower processing cost without degradation of polysaccharides. Since ionic liquids (ILs) are excellent solvents for pretreatment/dissolution of biomass, IL pretreatment was carried out on agave bagasse (AGB-byproduct of tequila industry) and digestibility and sugar yield was compared with that obtained with switchgrass (SWG). The IL pretreatment was conducted using ([C2mim][OAc]) at 120 and 160 °C for 3h and 15% biomass loading. While pretreatment using [C2mim][OAc] was very effective in improving the digestibility of both feedstocks, IL pretreatment at 160 °C resulted in higher delignification for AGB (45.5%) than for SWG (38.4%) when compared to 120 °C (AGB-16.6%, SWG-8.2%), formation of a highly amorphous cellulose structure and a significant enhancement of enzyme kinetics. These results highlight the potential of AGB as a biofuel feedstock that can produce high sugar yields with IL pretreatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit, Tepic, Mexico. joseantoniopimienta@gmail.com
authors.forename: Jose A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Perez-Pimienta
authors.forename: Monica G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Lopez-Ortega
authors.forename: Patanjali
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Varanasi
authors.forename: Vitalie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Stavila
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Seema
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Blake A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Simmons
mesh_terms: D027882:Agave / Q000737:chemistry*; D056804:Biofuels; D002482:Cellulose / Q000737:chemistry*; D005936:Glucans / Q000032:analysis; D052578:Ionic Liquids / Q000737:chemistry*; D008031:Lignin / Q000032:analysis; D008897:Panicum / Q000737:chemistry*; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D013696:Temperature; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction; D014990:Xylans / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D005936:Glucans; D052578:Ionic Liquids; D014990:Xylans; D002482:Cellulose; D008031:Lignin; C027433:bagasse