Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Cellulose after Pretreated by Ionic Liquids: Focus on One-pot Process

Ionic liquids (ILs) have been reported as efficient and novel solvents for pretreatment of cellulose. While most ILs have big side-effect on enzymatic process, two-step hydrolysis process has to be employed to avoid this problem. However, two-step hydrolysis process includes cellulose regeneration process before enzymatic hydrolysis, which is cumbersome and increases treatment time. Therefore, it is very necessary to find new ILs which have no side-effect on enzymatic process and the whole process can be employed in one pot. The activity and thermal stability of cellulase had been studied in three ILs including [MMIM][Me2PO4], [EMIM][Et2PO4] and [BMIM][Bu2PO4]. The results indicated that [MMIM][Me2PO4] had no big side-effect on cellulase compared with citric buffer. One-pot process of enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose treated by 10% [MMIM][Me2PO4] was carried out and it was showed that the hydrolysis rate of cellulose was 2.1 times than that of the undertreated. Therefore, the one-pot process of cellulase hydrolysis can be well applied in hydrolysis of cellulosic biomass pretreated by ILs, which could avoid the cumbersome regenerated cellulose process. And it would be meaningful and valuable in bioethanol production from cellulosic materials and other biomass industry. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of 2nd International Conference on Advances in Energy Engineering (ICAEE).