How would lignin change in ionic liquid treatment

Growing interests in ionic liquids (ILs) treatment in the biorefinery & biofuel community are primarily due to the remarkably high efficacy in fractionating the major components-cellulose and lignin from renewable biomass. In this study, we have used low aqueous IL (10% cholinium lysinate) to treat wild-type and engineered switchgrass to figure out how would the lignin structural changes through this treatment. The results provide fundamental understanding of the chemistry of IL pretreatment and important information on developing a more selective and efficient lignin valorization process based on aqueous IL pretreatment technology. See more at our publication: ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng., 2018, 6 (5), pp 6612–6623. DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b00384