In-situ conversion of hemicellulose to furfural by Lewis acid-enhanced deep eutectic solvents to maintain stable pretreatment performance and trigger profitable biorefining processes.
Journal:
International journal of biological macromolecules
Published Date:
Apr 30, 2025
Abstract
Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are gaining attention for lignocellulose pretreatment, yet screening methods and stable cyclic processes remain underexplored. This study compared solubility and machine learning to predict delignification, screening the optimal DESs combination from 168 recombinant ternary DESs. The selected DESs were utilized to develop a stable, recyclable pretreatment process (delignification and hemicellulose removal) via Lewis acid-catalyzed conversion of hemicellulose to furfural. Results suggested the multilayer perceptron model within the machine learning framework achieved the highest accuracy (R = 0.96, RMSE = 4.13) and generalization ability for delignification prediction. Lewis acid was employed to enhance the screened DESs (chloride: lactic acid: glycol = 1:5:1) for catalyzing the in situ conversion of hemicellulose to furfural (89.92 %), enhanced delignification (93.15 %) and maintained stable pretreatment performance even after 10 cycles. The cellulose-rich material exhibited higher enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency (78.17 %) and can be used to prepare nanocellulose with a narrower diameter (5.59 nm). Additionally, the lignin isolated by Lewis acid-enhanced DESs exhibited stronger antioxidant activity (IC50 = 0.03 mg/mL) and ultraviolet shielding capability. This work conducts a comprehensive investigation, from DESs screening to establishing a stable and recyclable pretreatment process, advancing the scalable application of DESs pretreatment for biomass processing.
