Studies on the Dissolution of Glucose in Ionic Liquids
and Extraction Using the Antisolvent Method
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Abstract
Biomass,
the fibrous material derived from plant cell walls, is
a potentially clean and renewable nonfood feedstock for liquid fuel
and chemical production in future biorefineries. The capability of
ionic liquids to act as selective solvents and catalysts for biomass
processing has already been proven. Thus, they are considered as an
alternative to conventional solvents. Nevertheless, phase equilibria
with biomass derived compounds is still lacking in the literature.
To overcome the lack of experimental data on phase equilibria of biomass
carbohydrates in ionic liquids, the solubility of d-glucose
in four ionic liquids was measured within a temperature range from
283 to 373 K. Solubility data were successfully correlated with local
composition thermodynamic models such as NRTL and UNIQUAC. In this
work, the possibility of extracting glucose from these ionic liquids
using the antisolvent method has been also evaluated. The parameters
affecting the extraction process are the ionic liquid type, ethanol/ionic
liquid ratio, temperature, water content, and time. Results indicate
that ethanol can be successfully used as an antisolvent to separate
glucose from ionic liquids