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Abstract
Lignocellulose is a potential sustainable feedstock for the production of renewable biofuels and bioproducts. Nature embeds cellulose microfibrils within hemicelluloses and lignin, creating a robust nano-scale structure that is resistant to insects, pathogens, and harsh environments. This resilient lignocellulose structure, in turn, thwarts bioprocessing by preventing cellulolytic enzymes access to the cellulosic substrates and the subsequent release of sugars. Thus, bioprocessing requires a pretreatment process to disrupt the intimately bound polymers in the lignocellulose structure. However, pretreatment is one of the more costly steps in the bioconversion of lignocellulose. Typically, harsh pretreatment conditions are used that degrade sugars, generate inhibitors of enzymes and microbes, and condense lignin by-products. Ionic liquids, one type of cellulose solvent, partially dissolves lignocellulose and enhances cellulose accessibility to enzymes; these solvents enable efficient release of glucose with moderate reaction conditions (e.g., <160 C). In this chapter, we describe the effect pretreatment by ionic liquids (and other cellulose solvents) has on cellulose accessibility to cellulases (CAC). Understanding CAC enables us to measure the lignocellulose recalcitrance and optimize the pretreatment conditions to maximize sugar yield and other bioproducts for profitable biorefineries.
Citation
Tulaphol, S.; Yelle, D.; Renneckar, S.; Sathitsuksanoh, N. 2021. Enhancing cellulose accessibilty to cellulase by ionic liquid pretreatment: interplay between cellulose accessibility and glucan digestibility. In: Zhang, S. (ed.), Encycolpedia of ionic liquids. Singapore: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6739-6_113-1.
