GREEN SOLVENTS FOR LIGNOCELLULOSE PRETREATMENT AND ENZYMATIC SACCHARIFICATION

Development of biorefinery platform asks for efficient, cost saving, and green processes for lignocellulosic biomass saccharification. Novel biomass pretreatments aimed at lignin dissolution and reduction of cellulose crystallinity are currently studied. Among these, processes based on Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) draw scientific and industrial research's attention. The present work reviews main results available in the literature on the recent findings on DES pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass. Moreover, some open issues related with process optimization and integration of pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis for fermentable sugar recovery are discussed.