@article {Morais20161643,
	title = {Imidazole: Prospect Solvent for Lignocellulosic Biomass Fractionation and Delignification},
	journal = {ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering},
	volume = {4},
	number = {3},
	year = {2016},
	note = {cited By 4},
	pages = {1643-1652},
	publisher = {American Chemical Society},
	abstract = {The future widespread production of biomass-derived fuels, chemicals, and materials requires cost-effective processing of sustainable feedstock. The use of imidazole as a solvent for biomass creates a novel approach that helps to accomplish this idea in a green fashion. This work proposes imidazole as a novel solvent for wheat straw pretreatment, which allowed the production of cellulose- and hemicellulose-rich fractions and added-value products from depolymerization of lignin. Various temperatures (110, 140, and 170 {\textdegree}C) and processing times (1, 2, and 4 h) of pretreatment were investigated. Both cellulose and hemicellulose recovery were highly dependent on reaction temperature. The best result for the recovery of cellulose-rich material was obtained at 170 {\textdegree}C for 2 h, achieving 62.4\% w{\textperiodcentered}w-1, whereas native wheat straw is composed by only 38.8\% w{\textperiodcentered}w-1 cellulose. For the same conditions, optimal results were also obtained regarding the enzymatic hydrolysis yield (99.3\% w{\textperiodcentered}w-1 glucan to glucose yield) in cellulose-rich material. This result was possible to be obtained due to morphological and structural changes in cellulose-rich materials accompanied by extensive delignification (up to 92\%). The presence of added-value phenolic compounds in recovered imidazole was analyzed by capillary electrophoresis and HPLC-MS. Vanillin and other lignin-based products were identified. Finally, the high purity of recovered imidazole was demonstrated by 1H and 13C NMR. {\textcopyright} 2015 American Chemical Society.},
	keywords = {Biomass, Biorefineries, Capillary electrophoresis, Cellulose, Cost effectiveness, Crystallinities, Delignification, Enzymatic hydrolysis, Fractionation, Green solvents, Hemicelluloses, Hydrolysis, Imidazole, Lignin, Lignocellulose, Molecular biology, Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Pre-Treatment, Pretreatment, Recovery, Refiners, Solvents, Straw},
	issn = {21680485},
	doi = {10.1021/acssuschemeng.5b01600},
	url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84960155445\&doi=10.1021\%2facssuschemeng.5b01600\&partnerID=40\&md5=9e7c11cfa0ddb89e11140b438c1ceb51},
	author = {Morais, A.R.C.a b and Pinto, J.V.c and Nunes, D.c and Roseiro, L.B.a and Oliveira, M.C.d and Fortunato, E.c and Bogel-{\L}ukasik, R.a}
}
