(67b) Applications of Lignin-derived Deep Eutectic Solvents in Biorefinery Processes

Chang Geun Yoo,^1,9 Yunxuan Wang,^1,2 Jiae Ryu,¹ Kwang Ho Kim,³ Xianzhi Meng,² Yunqiao Pu,^4,5 Yang Tian,^6,7 Aymerick Eudes,^6,7 Gyu Leem,^8,9 Arthur J. Ragauskas^2,5,10

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, State University of New York Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY 13210, United States

² Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Knoxville, TN 37996, United States

³ Clean Energy Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, 02792 Republic of Korea

⁴ Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, United States

⁵ Joint Institute for Biological Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, United States

⁶ Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States

⁷ Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, CA 94608, United States

⁸ Department of Chemistry, State University of New York Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY 13210, United States

⁹ The Michael M. Szwarc Polymer Research Institute, Syracuse, NY 13210, United States

¹⁰ Center of Renewable Carbon, Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries, University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Knoxville, TN 37996, United States

The production and use of organic solvents from fossil fuels pose challenges in the sustainability field, including the effort and energy required for their disposal. There have been enormous efforts to seek alternatives to these types of media in many research areas. Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have been recently introduced as a promising solvent due to their great potential including low vapor pressure, high boiling point, biodegradability, and high reactivity.

Renewable components have been studied as hydrogen bond donors in many DESs, and these solvents are used for biofuel production, metal electrodeposition, electrolyte, separation and other application areas. This talk will introduce sustainable biorefinery processes using lignin-derived DESs and their possible applications in the production of biofuels and chemicals. A closed-loop strategy using these renewable DESs to achieve a circular bioeconomy will be discussed.