Green Deep Eutectic Solvents for Microwave-Assisted Biomass Delignification and Valorisation

Aiming to fulfil the sustainability criteria of future biorefineries, a novel biomass pretreatment combining natural deep eutectic solvents (NaDESs) and microwave (MW) technology was developed. Results showed that NaDESs have high potential as green for lignin fractionation/recovery sugar release in following enzymatic hydrolysis. A new class derived (LigDESs) also investigated, showing promising effects wheat straw delignification. MW irradiation enabled fast under mild condition (120 °C, 30 min). To better understand interaction with these solvents, dielectric properties were investigated. Furthermore, NaDES using recovered from hydrogen bond donor prepared, thus paving way “closed-loop” biorefinery process.