DoE progress on switchgrass pretreatment for biofuels

Researchers with the US Department of Energy’s (DoE) Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), have reported the first demonstration of a one-pot, wash-free process for the ionic liquid pretreatment and saccharification of switchgrass.

Using an imidazolium-based ionic liquid pretreatment, a team from Sandia National Laboratories was able to release high concentrations of two sugars essential to creating biofuels, glucose and xylose.

They were then able to separate the sugars at better than 90% efficiency, improving costs and allowing the ionic liquid mixture to be recycled and reused. 

‘By combining ionic liquid pretreatment and saccharification into a single vessel, we eliminate the excessive use of water and waste disposal currently associated with washing biomass that is pretreated with ionic liquids,’ says chemical engineer Blake Simmons, head of JBEI’s deconstruction division.

Advanced biofuels made from cellulosic sugars stored in grasses and other non-food crops and agricultural waste could substantially reduce the use of the fossil fuels responsible for the release of nearly 9 billion metric tonnes of excess carbon into the atmosphere each year.

JBEI is a bioenergy research centre partnered with DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office.