(545e) Ohmic Heating-Assisted Hydrotropic Acid Biomass Fractionation

As of 2022, between 0.6-0.9 billion tons of biomass resources are unutilized in the United States annually. Biomass offers an excellent opportunity to generate renewable chemicals while reducing waste. Biomass fractionation is a key aspect of utilizing biomass, which allows for the application of biomass in multiple applications, including drop-in biofuels and advanced materials. Acid hydrotropy (AH) is an up-and-coming technology used for biomass fractionation. It offers the advantage of high rates of delignification with significant cellulose preservation. AH is performed at low temperatures (<100 ℃) and at atmospheric pressure, a significant advantage over other biomass fractionation techniques. Through process intensification this process can be even more economical and environmentally friendly. Ohmic heated acid hydrotropy (OH-AH) reduces energy loss and increases reaction time, while achieving higher quality products. Ohmic heating (OH) is generated by applying electricity to conductive mediums. It can convert electricity into thermal energy in situ at nearly 100% efficiency, significantly reducing energy losses compared to traditional reaction heating. Maleic acid OH-AH achieved a lignin and hemicellulose removal of 48.39% and 73.79% from red oak, respectively, and a cellulose retention of 83.16% within 10 minutes. When OH-AH was performed using p-Toluenesulfonic acid, a pulp obtained after 5 minutes contained only 14.62% lignin and 5.07% hemicellulose, which correspond to an 85.38% lignin removal and 82.37% hemicellulose removal. OH-AH was also performed on several other types of biomass (corn stover, loblolly pine), demonstrating the ability to work on different biomass types. Thus, OH-AH biomass fractionation has the versatility to generate a variety of products from a variety of biomass sources.