Hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose is a crucial step for effective use of lignocellulosic biomass because glucose can be efficiently refined to various biofuels, chemicals, foods and medicines. Therefore, many studies have been done to hydrolyze cellulose to glucose with enzymes, dilute acids and sub- or super-critical water; however, these methods have many disadvantages such as the high cost of enzymes, difficulty in separation of catalysts, corrosion of reactors, undesirable waste effluents and severe reaction conditions.
In August 2012, biomass group of Key Laboratory of Tropical Plant Resource and Sustainable Use in Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), CAS reported their new progress in applications of solid catalysts hydrolyzed the pretreated cellulose may overcome the above drawbacks.
In the present study, the ionic liquid (IL) [AMIM]Cl (1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride) was used for cellulose pretreatment to reduce the crystallinity and to increase the surface area of cellulose. The IL was separated from the pretreated cellulose and reused. The pretreated cellulose was hydrolyzed in the presence of the solid catalyst (CaFe2O4) synthesized in this work. The activity of the catalyst was determined after several reaction cycles.
Hydrolysis of cellulose with CaFe2O4catalyst combined with [AMIM]Cl pretreatment is a green, energy-saving and efficient process. Related results were published in the international journal “Bioresource Technology”
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960852412012035).
Related references:
Fan Zhang, Zhen Fang. Hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose at the low temperature of 423 K with CaFe2O4-based solid catalyst, Bioresource Technology, 124, 440–445. (2012)
中文版：
由于葡萄糖可以高效转化为生物燃料，化学品，食物和医药等，所以有效利用木质纤维素转化为葡萄糖是其关键技术之一。然而很多用于水解纤维素的研究，如生物酶解，稀酸水解和超临界水解等，但是如上方法有如生物酶的成本较高，催化剂难以分离，反应器易于腐蚀，排放废液及反应条件苛刻等不足。
中科院西双版纳热带植物园热带植物资源可持续利用重点实验室生物能源组，于2012年8月报道了利用固体催化剂水解预处理纤维素的新工艺，该工艺可以有效解决以上不足。
在该项研究中，[AMIM]Cl型离子液体用于纤维素预处理，用于降低纤维素结晶度和提高其比表面积，离子液体分离回收后，利用CaFe2O4型固体催化剂进行水解预处理的纤维素，并可以实现催化剂重复利用。
利用CaFe2O4型固体催化剂水解[AMIM]Cl型离子液体预处理的纤维素是一种绿色，节能和高效的水解方法，相关的报道发表于国际期刊“Bioresource Technology”。
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960852412012035).
