Conversion of cellulose rich municipal solid waste blends using ionic liquids: feedstock convertibility and process scale-up

Abstract

Sixteen cellulose rich municipal solid waste (MSW) blends were developed and screened using an acidassisted ionic liquid (IL) deconstruction process. Corn stover and switchgrass were chosen to represent herbaceous feedstocks; non-recyclable paper (NRP) and grass clippings (GC) collected from households were chosen as MSW candidates given their abundance in municipal waste streams. The most promising MSW blend: corn stover/non-recyclable paper (CS/NRP) at 80/20 ratio was identified in milliliter-scale screening based on the sugar yield, feedstock cost, and availability. A successful scale-up (600-fold) of the IL-acidolysis process on the identified CS/NRP blend has been achieved. The sugar and lignin streams were recovered and characterized. Mass and material energy flows of the optimized process were presented. Feedstock cost for MSW blends was also discussed. Results suggest the promising potential of using MSW as a feedstock blending agent for biorefineries while maintaining sufficient performance and low feedstock cost. The bench scale (6 L) study is an essential step in demonstrating the scalability of this IL technology.

Methyl Ketones from Municipal Solid Waste Blends by One‐Pot Ionic‐Liquid Pretreatment, Saccharification, and Fermentation

“…Non‐air‐classified and air‐classified grass clippings were both ground to 2 mm by using a Wiley Mill. The nonrecyclable fraction of MSW‐derived paper was collected by Cascadia Consulting (Seattle, WA) during a waste composition study conducted in the City of Seattle in July and November 2014 . The nonrecyclable components consisted of aseptic and polycoated containers and packaging, food‐soiled paper, shredded paper, and waxed or coated papers and cardboard.…”

“…The nonrecyclable fraction of MSW-derived paper was collected by Cascadia Consulting (Seattle, WA)d uring aw aste composition study conducted in the City of Seattle in July and November 2014. [26] The nonrecyclable components consisted of aseptic and polycoated containers and packaging, food-soiled paper,s hredded paper,a nd waxed or coated papers and cardboard. These materials were dried to < 10 %m oisture and shredded with aF ranklin Miller Ta skmaster commercial-scale shredder (Franklin Miller,L ivingston, NJ) and then further size-reduced to 2mmb yu sing aW iley Mill.…”

“…The cations also interact with the hydrogen bonds through π–π stacking . Our previous studies showed that MSW could be used as a robust blending agent with corn stover for biorefineries, which released up to 80 % glucose and 90 % xylose by using the IL [C 2 C 1 Im][OAc] and mineral acid hydrolysis . Although high sugar yields and lignin removal rates were achieved, the imidazolium‐based ILs, such as [C 2 C 1 Im][OAc] or [C 2 C 1 Im]Cl, proved toxic to enzymes and microbes .…”

“…[24] Our previous studies showed that MSW couldb eu sed as ar obust blending agentw ith corn stover for biorefineries, which released up to 80 %g lucose and 90 %x ylose by using the IL [C 2 C 1 Im][OAc] and mineral acid hydrolysis. [4,16,25,26] Although highs ugar yields and lignin removal rates were achieved,t he imidazolium-basedI Ls, such as [C 2 C 1 Im][OAc] or [C 2 C 1 Im]Cl, proved toxic to enzymes and microbes. [22,27] Therefore, either extensive washing of the pretreated biomass ([C 2 C 1 Im][OAc] process) or hydrolysate purification ([C 2 C 1 Im]Cl-based acidolysis process) would be needed to remove the residual ILs befored ownstream processing.…”

Pathways to Water Sector Decarbonization, Carbon Capture and Utilization

“…A study concluded that phosphonium-based ILs are better extractants than the traditional organic solvents for recovery of short chain organic acids from aqueous dilute solutions. They succeeded to obtain higher distribution coefficients as compared to most traditional solvents by using phosphonium-based ionic liquids for the extraction of low concentrated lactic acid solutions, and obtained an extraction efficiency of 98.4% with a two-step extraction (Liang et al, 2017;Oliveira et al, 2012). IL-mediated esterification for reactive extraction of low-value VFA from dilute aqueous streams was also reported.…”