Extraction of lignin from Saudi Date Palm Biomass using Protic Ionic Liquids and characterization

Many feedstocks (plastics and biomass) have been utilized to produce biofuels, but they required high pressure, high temperature, and longer reaction time. These extreme conditions make the separation process very expensive and hard to adopt by industries. However, lignin is an attractive renewable biopolymer that can be extracted from lignocellulosic biomass. It can be further used for the production of many values added products. Although it is an attractive alternative, still some economic challenges need to address. The present study proposed using protic ionic liquids (PIL) to extract lignin from the Saudi date palm. PIL are emerging and novel series of solvents. In our previously published work, it has been established that Pyridinium-based PILs extracted lignin holds more phenolic and aromatic contents.