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SUMMARY:Biorefining with low-cost ionic liquids: chemicals\, fuels and eco
 nomics
DTSTART:20231208T161500
DTEND:20231208T190000
DTSTAMP:20260513T185303Z
UID:39cd712ec75803b3c3c255e695c5d88521ef2ec4f71dd0fd5136c07f
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Jason Patrick Hallett\nIonic liquids (ILs) have proven t
 o be highly tunable ‘designer solvents’ capable of a wide range of exc
 iting chemistries. However\, industrial application at large scale is hamp
 ered by high solvent cost. This cost is\, however\, a tunable feature of t
 he solvent itself – provided the ion selection is handled with a careful
  eye aimed at limiting synthetic complexity. Lowering the solvent cost wil
 l increase the attractive opportunities of ILs for bulk processing of lowe
 r cost end products – including such applications as biofuels.\n\nOne of
  the key challenges in biorefining is the initial separation or deconstruc
 tion of lignocellulosic feedstock into separate components. ILs offer uniq
 ue advantages in this area\, due to their unusual thermochemical propertie
 s. However\, there are serious concerns about the economic viability of th
 eir use due to the very high cost of most ionic liquids (> €50/kg).\n\nW
 e have overcome this by redesigning the IL based deconstruction process to
  use low-cost\, acidic ILs for lignin dissolution rather than cellulose di
 ssolution\, yielding filterable cellulose and a dissolved lignin for preci
 pitation or conversion to high-value chemicals. We have found that process
 ability of the cellulose is high and lignin recoveries near quantitative.\
 n\nWe use a range of ‘protic’ ILs\, the family typically used in IL in
 dustrial processes\, because their simple acid-base chemistry results in a
  simple and cheap synthesis\, with a cost (< €1/kg) similar to common or
 ganic solvents such as acetone or toluene. This presentation will discuss 
 how ionic liquids can be ‘tuned’ to control cost structure of the fina
 l solvent\, and what implications this will have for the chemical processe
 s involved. The impact of the solvent on large-scale applications\, such a
 s biomass pre-treatment\, will be discussed\, with a focus on performance 
 and process considerations such as how the ILs maintain solvent stability 
 under long-term processing conditions\, that they can be recovered and con
 tinue to exhibit very good performance after multiple reuses. These proper
 ties highlight that the ILs have the flexibility to be useful for a variet
 y of downstream chemical processing techniques\, and for use in other appl
 ications as well.\n 
LOCATION:CE 1 2 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==CE%201%202
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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