An efficient process for the saccharification of wood chips by combined ionic liquid pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis

A process concept combining pretreatment of wood in ionic liquids and subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis to sugars is herein investigated to identify operating conditions which allow for (i) the processing of larger wood chips of 10 mm length, (ii) low temperature, (iii) high sugar yield, and (iv) short processing time. A careful quantitative study of the interaction of pretreatment and hydrolysis reveals that hydrolysis is most effective if beech chips are first disintegrated in [EMIM][Ac] at 115 °C for 1.5 h. The cellulose conversion varies between 70.5 wt% and 90.2 wt% for hydrolysis times between 5 h and 72 h. A complete recovery of cellulose and xylan resulting in a total saccharification of 65 wt% of the wood chips could be demonstrated. It is shown that short pretreatment times are required to enable high sugar yield as well as to limit product degradation.