One-pot lignocellulose fractionation using lewis acid-catalyzed GVL/H2O system toward complete exploitation of eucalyptus

Efficient fractionation of lignocellulosic biomass offers the possibility of converting it into high value-added products. This paper presents a strategy for one-pot fractionation of eucalyptus in an AlCl3-catalyzed γ-valerolactone (GVL)/H2O system. Under the suitable conditions, 90.7% of hemicellulose and 92.5% of lignin were dissolved in the aqueous and organic phases, respectively, while 86.2% of cellulose was retained. Enzymatic hydrolysis of the cellulose-rich solid residue resulted in a 86.2% yield of glucose. In addition, 82% of the original xylan was recovered from the aqueous phase as xylose and low levels of inhibitors were generated. The recovered lignin appeared as spherical nanoparticles with high purity (95.2%), low dispersity (1.32), low molar mass, making it well-suited for biomaterials preparation. The proposed strategy is novel and promising for lignocellulosic biomass fractionation, which improves the downstream processability and facilitates the complete exploitation of biomass, thus providing a viable route for biorefinery.