Recovery of an ionic liquid [BMIM]Cl from a hydrolysate of lignocellulosic biomass using electrodialysis

In this study, an ionic liquid was recovered in electrodialysis (ED) of the liquid fraction (hydrolysate) from the softwood biomass pretreated with an ionic liquid, [BMIM]Cl (1-butyl-3-methylimidazaolium chloride). The influence of operating parameters (electrical potential and ionic liquid concentration) on the ED performance was investigated. The results showed that the process performance increased with increasing electrical potential and ionic liquid concentration. In this study, the process performance decreased due to the deposition of ionic liquid during ED experiments of the hydrolysate. However, the process performance was recovered by chemical cleaning as reversible fouling. A feasibility study on the ionic liquid recovery showed that the ED process had better performance than other processes without significant fouling effect as a feasible method to recover ionic liquids from hydrolysate. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.