FRACTIONATION OF A LIGNOCELLULOSIC MATERIAL

摘要

Provided is a bi-phasic method for fractionating a lignocellulosic material, the method comprising; contacting the lignocellulosic material with an ionic liquid and dissolving the lignocellulosic material therein; providing a second liquid which is immiscible with the ionic liquid and is also a non-solvent for cellulose; adding the second liquid to the ionic liquid so as to form a biphasic system which comprises an ionic liquid phase essentially free of lignocellulose and a second liquid phase comprising lignin in solution and cellulose as a precipitate; separating the two phases and recovering the precipitated cellulose from the separated second liquid phase. The fractionated cellulose can further be hydrolysed to obtain glucose and further fermented to obtain ethanol.