ABSTRACT
Biomass and specifically lignocellulosic biomass has become an increasingly attractive alternative to fossil fuels to mitigate climate change due to ever-increasing consumption of energy and materials. This chapter focuses on some of the specifics of ionic liquids applications to lignocellulosic biomass. The process of biorefining lignocellulosic biomass for biofuels involves the fermentation of sugars, mainly glucose from depolymerized cellulose, to produce ethanol. While pretreatment is a costly process, the impact of removing it from the biofuel production process renders the prospect of lignocellulosic fuel unfeasible. The resulting reduction in yield drives costs far beyond the amount saved by eliminating pretreatment. Ionic liquids are salts that have weakly coordinating anion-cation pairs. The processing of lignocellulosic biomass with ionic liquids may provide efficient paths to the production of necessary chemicals and materials for other chemical reactions. Ionic liquids have many interesting properties that have attracted researchers to their vast potential, including applications as solvents for the processing of lignocellulose.
