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Pretreatment for biorefineries : A review of common methods for efficient utilisation of lignocellulosic materials

Galbe, Mats LU and Wallberg, Ola LU orcid (2019) In Biotechnology for Biofuels 12(1).
Abstract

The implementation of biorefineries based on lignocellulosic materials as an alternative to fossil-based refineries calls for efficient methods for fractionation and recovery of the products. The focus for the biorefinery concept for utilisation of biomass has shifted, from design of more or less energy-driven biorefineries, to much more versatile facilities where chemicals and energy carriers can be produced. The sugar-based biorefinery platform requires pretreatment of lignocellulosic materials, which can be very recalcitrant, to improve further processing through enzymatic hydrolysis, and for other downstream unit operations. This review summarises the development in the field of pretreatment (and to some extent, of fractionation) of... (More)

The implementation of biorefineries based on lignocellulosic materials as an alternative to fossil-based refineries calls for efficient methods for fractionation and recovery of the products. The focus for the biorefinery concept for utilisation of biomass has shifted, from design of more or less energy-driven biorefineries, to much more versatile facilities where chemicals and energy carriers can be produced. The sugar-based biorefinery platform requires pretreatment of lignocellulosic materials, which can be very recalcitrant, to improve further processing through enzymatic hydrolysis, and for other downstream unit operations. This review summarises the development in the field of pretreatment (and to some extent, of fractionation) of various lignocellulosic materials. The number of publications indicates that biomass pretreatment plays a very important role for the biorefinery concept to be realised in full scale. The traditional pretreatment methods, for example, steam pretreatment (explosion), organosolv and hydrothermal treatment are covered in the review. In addition, the rapidly increasing interest for chemical treatment employing ionic liquids and deep-eutectic solvents are discussed and reviewed. It can be concluded that the huge variation of lignocellulosic materials makes it difficult to find a general process design for a biorefinery. Therefore, it is difficult to define "the best pretreatment" method. In the end, this depends on the proposed application, and any recommendation of a suitable pretreatment method must be based on a thorough techno-economic evaluation.

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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Biomass, Biorefinery, Fractionation, Lignocellulosic materials, Pretreatment, Review
in
Biotechnology for Biofuels
volume
12
issue
1
article number
294
publisher
BioMed Central (BMC)
external identifiers
  • pmid:31890022
  • scopus:85077456506
ISSN
1754-6834
DOI
10.1186/s13068-019-1634-1
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
d5fa09e9-a3fb-4d06-9f62-af8dfeee2c41
date added to LUP
2020-01-19 20:25:54
date last changed
2024-06-27 11:33:03
@article{d5fa09e9-a3fb-4d06-9f62-af8dfeee2c41,
  abstract     = {{<p>The implementation of biorefineries based on lignocellulosic materials as an alternative to fossil-based refineries calls for efficient methods for fractionation and recovery of the products. The focus for the biorefinery concept for utilisation of biomass has shifted, from design of more or less energy-driven biorefineries, to much more versatile facilities where chemicals and energy carriers can be produced. The sugar-based biorefinery platform requires pretreatment of lignocellulosic materials, which can be very recalcitrant, to improve further processing through enzymatic hydrolysis, and for other downstream unit operations. This review summarises the development in the field of pretreatment (and to some extent, of fractionation) of various lignocellulosic materials. The number of publications indicates that biomass pretreatment plays a very important role for the biorefinery concept to be realised in full scale. The traditional pretreatment methods, for example, steam pretreatment (explosion), organosolv and hydrothermal treatment are covered in the review. In addition, the rapidly increasing interest for chemical treatment employing ionic liquids and deep-eutectic solvents are discussed and reviewed. It can be concluded that the huge variation of lignocellulosic materials makes it difficult to find a general process design for a biorefinery. Therefore, it is difficult to define "the best pretreatment" method. In the end, this depends on the proposed application, and any recommendation of a suitable pretreatment method must be based on a thorough techno-economic evaluation.</p>}},
  author       = {{Galbe, Mats and Wallberg, Ola}},
  issn         = {{1754-6834}},
  keywords     = {{Biomass; Biorefinery; Fractionation; Lignocellulosic materials; Pretreatment; Review}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{12}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{BioMed Central (BMC)}},
  series       = {{Biotechnology for Biofuels}},
  title        = {{Pretreatment for biorefineries : A review of common methods for efficient utilisation of lignocellulosic materials}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13068-019-1634-1}},
  doi          = {{10.1186/s13068-019-1634-1}},
  volume       = {{12}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}