Structural Features of Lignins Extracted from Pine with a Protic Ionic Liquid

Abstract

Protic ionic liquids have been recognized as promising agents that effectively fractionate lignocellulosic feed-stocks into a cellulose enriched pulp and a lignin precipi-tate. Both materials introduce significant potential as low -cost and renewable precursors in the energy industry. Lignin with its highly functional and aromatic nature can provide the genera-tion of a wide range of platform chemicals, fuels and materials. In this work, lignin recovered from pine through pretreatments with the low-cost protic ionic liquid, triethylammonium hydrogen sul-fate (TEAHSO4) were examined regarding their chemical and thermal properties. The effects of pretreatment parameters, bio-mass loading and recycling were investigated using characteriza-tions via Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and ther-mogravimetric analysis (TGA) and trivial changes were obtained between the samples. The findings demonstrated the use of cost-effective conditions and recycling for pretreatments using PILs as being among the most recognized lignin-selective strategies.