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Journal of Applied Sciences

Year: 2015 | Volume: 15 | Issue: 3 | Page No.: 531-537
DOI: 10.3923/jas.2015.531.537
Pretreatment of Wood Biomass with Ionic Liquids: A "Green" Approach to Separate Cellulose for Use in Oilfield Application
M. Moniruzzaman, T. Ono, M. Azmi Bustam, S. Yusup and Y. Uemura

Abstract: Cellulosic polymers have been extensively used as a potential alternative to organic synthetic polymer in oilfields applications due to many unique and attractive properties, including biodegradable, inexpensive, easy to deal with after use and so on. Among many types of celluloses, wood cellulose has gained increased worldwide interest due to growing global environmental awareness and concepts of sustainability and no conflict between food and chemical/materials production. However, extraction of cellulose from wood biomass with "green" methods is important and challenging for the production of cellulose for further chemical processing. This study describe a new approach for the separation of cellulose from wood biomass with a clean efficient method which combined Ionic Liquids (ILs) pretreatment/recovered steps followed by enzymatic delignification. The pretreatment of wood biomass with the hydrophilic IL (emim) (OAc) (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate) was conducted at a range of temperatures (50-80°C). The IL was recovered by washing with water-acetone mixture prior to enzymatic delignification in aqueous systems without or with small amount of ILs. Characterizations of untreated and treated wood materials were performed using SEM, XRD, FTIR, TGA and chemical methods. IL pretreatment did alter the structure to render a more accessible surface area for enzyme. Obtained cellulose fibers became more separated into individual microsized fibers, making it suitable for oil field application. We confidently believe that this newly developed process will play a great role in converting lignocellulosic biomass-the most abundant renewable biomaterials in the world-to biomaterials, biopolymers, biofuels, fracture fluids and natural oil sorbents.

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How to cite this article
M. Moniruzzaman, T. Ono, M. Azmi Bustam, S. Yusup and Y. Uemura, 2015. Pretreatment of Wood Biomass with Ionic Liquids: A "Green" Approach to Separate Cellulose for Use in Oilfield Application. Journal of Applied Sciences, 15: 531-537.

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