AUTHOR=Kim Kwang Ho , Yoo Chang Geun 

TITLE=Challenges and Perspective of Recent Biomass Pretreatment Solvents

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemical Engineering

VOLUME=3

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemical-engineering/articles/10.3389/fceng.2021.785709

DOI=10.3389/fceng.2021.785709

ISSN=2673-2718

ABSTRACT=<p>The increased demands on renewable and sustainable products require enhancing the current conversion efficiency and expanding the utilization of biomass from a single component (<italic>i.e.</italic>, cellulose) to entire biomass components in the biorefinery concept. Pretreatment solvent plays a critical role in various biorefinery processes. Recent pretreatment solvents such as organic co-solvents, acid hydrotropes, ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents showed effective biomass fractionation as well as preservation of high-quality cellulose and lignin under mild conditions. Despite these significant enhancements in biomass pretreatment solvent, there are still many challenges, such as feedstock variety, valorization of non-cellulose components, and eco-friendliness of the applied catalyst and solvent. These technical, economic and environmental obstacles should be considered in future biomass pretreatment solvents. In particular, the development of feedstock-agnostic solvent with high fractionation performance for high quality and quantity of all three major components (<italic>i.e.</italic>, cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) together would be an ideal direction.</p>