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Updated: Mar 21, 2026

Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass with Low-cost Ionic Liquids
Published on: August 10, 2016
Synergistic effects of surfactant-assisted ionic liquid pretreatment rice straw
Ken-Lin Chang1, Xi-Mei Chen2, Ye-Ju Han2
1School of Environmental Science and Engineering and Institute of Environmental Health and Pollution Control, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China; Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China.
Abstract:
The aim of this work was to study an environmentally friendly method for pretreating rice straw by using 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([BMIM]Cl) as an ionic liquid (IL) assisted by surfactants. Different temperatures, reaction times, and surfactant concentrations were studied. Compared with [BMIM]Cl only pretreatment, the addition of 1% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and 1% cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) increased lignin removal to 49.48% and 34.76%, respectively. Untreated and pretreated rice straw was thoroughly characterized through FTIR, XRD, and FE-SEM. Cellulose crystallinity and surface morphology of the rice straw were substantially altered after surfactant-assisted IL pretreatment. In conclusion, surfactant-assisted IL pretreatment is an effective method for producing fermentable sugars from lignocellulosic substrates.

