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Investigation of Reaction Mechanism and the Effects of Process Parameters on Ionic Liquid–Based Delignification of Sugarcane Straw

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Abstract

The delignification of sugarcane straw (SCS) was investigated using 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate, [Emim][OAc], varying three process parameters such as temperature, residence time, and stirring rate. The maximum degree of delignification was around 63.9% at 90 °C for a stirring rate of 1400 rpm and a residence time of 5 h. The 23 full factorial statistical model was well-fitted with the experimental results. Among the 26 solid-liquid reaction mechanisms studied in this study, Zhuravlev, Lesokhin, and Templeman diffusion (i.e., shrinking core/product layer) model was found to be the most suitable model for describing the delignification mechanism of SCS using [Emim][OAc]. When compared with other process parameters, higher temperatures produced low crystalline and low thermally stable recovered cellulose-rich material with high porosity and BET surface area due to higher degree of crystalline cellulose I to amorphous cellulose II transformation. The recovered lignin was of low molecular structure with high content of phenolic OH− groups and syringyl units. The recovery of [Emim][OAc] was > 85% with no structural changes.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. The first author is indebted to the School of Engineering, RMIT University, for his postgraduate scholarship.

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  1. Chemical & Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia

    Pobitra Halder, Sazal Kundu, Savankumar Patel, Mojtaba Hedayati Marzbali, Rajarathinam Parthasarathy & Kalpit Shah

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Halder, P., Kundu, S., Patel, S. et al. Investigation of Reaction Mechanism and the Effects of Process Parameters on Ionic Liquid–Based Delignification of Sugarcane Straw. Bioenerg. Res. 13, 1144–1158 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-020-10134-7

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