The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognises the need for a green and
sustainable chemistry and engineering [1]. In this context, cleaner processes require the substitution of
organic solvents by less harmful solvents. In addition, the solvent selection for a biomass processing is
crucial for the environmental sustainability and feasibility of a biorefinery [2].
In this work, water and the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([C2mim][OAc]) were chosen
as green solvents for a selective fractionation of Eucalyptus globulus wood in order to valorise their main
fractions (hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin). Two sequential stages were proposed for the biomass
processing. First, an autohydrolysis step allowed the hemicellulose solubilisation and its recovery as
oligosaccharides in the aqueous liquid phase, yielding a solid phase composed by 60 % glucan and
34 % lignin. Second, a treatment with [C2mim][OAc] was evaluated for the delignification of the
autohydrolysed biomass. Optimisation of operational conditions (temperature and time) of the ionic
liquid treatment was performed to improve the enzymatic saccharification of cellulose remaining in the
solid phase and to solubilise lignin. The proposed process configuration is expected to contribute
towards the development of integrated biorefineries based on hardwood biomass.This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and
Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2019 unit, BioTecNorte
operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund
under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional doNorte, the EcoTech project (POCI01-0145-FEDER-032206). Aloia Romaní thanks the Iacobus Program (European Territorial Cooperation
Partnership Galicia – Norte de Portugal) for a mobility fellowship.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
