(452e) Ionic Liquid Pretreatement of Lignocellulosic Material for Enhancement of Enzyme Hydrolysis

Depleting fossil fuels and the demand for energy has necessitated the urge for an alternative renewable energy and lignocellulosic material offer a sustainable and renewable source for the production of biofuel.

A novel ionic liquid pretreatment technology has been developed to reduce the robustness of cellulose and make it amenable to the cellulase enzymes. The ionic liquid pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass produces amorphous or partially crystalline cellulose and enhances the saccharification rates of biomass sugars. The high crystallinity of cellulose poses an impediment to hydrolysis enzymes for the cellulosic portion of biomass. Different pretreatment conditions have been explored to produce amorphous cellulose to increase accessible surfaces to the enzymes used in saccharification. Variable enzyme mixes have been used to study the saccharification kinetics in an attempt to explore a simplified enzyme component mixes. Cellulose and biomass pretreated with ionic liquid have been characterized to assess the crystallinity and elucidate the accessibility of cellulase enzymes to biomass. Saccharification results for pretreated biomass hydrolyzed with different cellulase enzymes are compared and also evaluated using simplified enzyme mixtures.