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Updated: Mar 9, 2026

Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass with Low-cost Ionic Liquids
Published on: August 10, 2016
Impact of surfactant type for ionic liquid pretreatment on enhancing delignification of rice straw
Ken-Lin Chang1, Xi-Mei Chen2, Xiao-Qin Wang2
1School of Environmental Science and Engineering and Institute of Environmental Health and Pollution Control, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China; Key Laboratory of Urban Environmental and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China; Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Abstract:
This work describes an environmentally friendly method for pretreating rice straw by using 1-Allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([AMIM]Cl) as an ionic liquid (IL) assisted by surfactants. The impacts of surfactant type (including nonionic-, anionic-, cationic- and bio-surfactant) on the ionic liquid pretreatment were investigated. The bio-surfactant+IL-pretreated rice straw showed significant lignin removal (26.14%) and exhibited higher cellulose conversion (36.21%) than the untreated (16.16%) rice straw. The cellulose conversion of the rice straw pretreated with bio-surfactant+IL was the highest and the lowest was observed for pretreated with cationic-surfactant+IL. Untreated and pretreated rice straw was thoroughly characterized through SEM and AFM. In conclusion, the results provided an effective and environmental method for pretreating lignocellulosic substrates by using green solvent (ionic liquid) and biodegradable bio-surfactant.
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