Lignocellulose fractionation into furfural and glucose by AlCl-catalyzed DES/MIBK biphasic pretreatment.

Herein, an efficient DES/MIBK biphasic pretreatment system for preparation of furfural and fermentable glucose from lignocellulose was developed with AlCl as catalysis. The low-cost and renewable DES (Choline chloride-Oxalic acid) served not only as a Brønsted acid catalyst, but also as a pretreatment solvent in present work, and MIBK as an extracting reagent which can increase the yield of furfural in DES phase. The effects of this biphasic pretreatment on the furfural yield and saccharification of the lignocellulose before and after pretreatment were explored using HPLC, HAPEC, FT-IR, XRD and SEM.