Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Electronic address: tanyeetong@siswa.um.edu.my
  • 2 Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Electronic address: ngoh@um.edu.my
  • 3 Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Electronic address: adeline@um.edu.my
Bioresour Technol, 2019 Jun;281:359-366.
PMID: 30831515 DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2019.02.010

Abstract

In this study, acidic deep eutectic solvents (DES) synthesized from various organic carboxylic acid hydrogen bond donors were applied to lignocellulosic oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) pretreatment. The influence of functional group types on acid and their molar ratios with hydrogen bond acceptor on lignin extraction were evaluated. The result showed presence of hydroxyl group and short alkyl chain enhanced biomass fractionation and lignin extraction. Choline chloride:lactic acid (CC-LA) with the ratio of 1:15 and choline chloride:formic acid (CC-FA) with 1:2 ratio extracted more than 60 wt% of lignin. CC-LA DES-extracted lignin (DEEL) exhibited comparable reactivity with technical and commercial lignin based on its phenolic hydroxyl content (3.33-3.72 mmol/glignin). Also, the DES-pretreated EFB comprised of enriched glucan content after biopolymer fractionation. Both DES-pretreated EFB and DEEL can be potential feedstock for subsequent conversion processes. This study presented DES as an effective and facile pretreatment method for reactive lignin extraction.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.