USE OF IONIC LIQUID IN PRETREATMENT AND ENZYMATIC HYDROLYSIS STEPS IN LIGNOCELULOSIC BIOMASS FOR BIOETHANOL PRODUCTION
ionic liquids, biomass, ethanol, pretreatment.
Currently, there is a great interest aiming not to depend on non-renewable energy resources - derived from petroleum -, highlighting the progress in the study of the use of lignocellulosic materials, renewable raw material. The production of second generation biofuels - biobutanol, biohydrocarbons, bioplastics - is a challenging step due to the complexity of pretreatments; these are specific to certain lignocellulosic material. Given the various industrial applications attributed to ionic liquids, the use for dissolving cellulose present in biomass is the most studied over the last years aiming at bioethanol production. Studies demonstrate the feasibility of inserting some ionic liquids in biorefinery processes in view of cellulose dissolution. In addition, it is intended to perform during one step the process simultaneous fermentation and saccharification (FSS). Thus, this work will seek to use ionic liquids for the pretreatment of lignocellulosic materials aiming at the dissolution of cellulose and the possibility of performing the saccharification and fermentation process simultaneously to obtain bioethanol through pretreated biomass.