Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Aug 11;10(1):50.
doi: 10.1186/s40643-023-00673-0.

Organosolv pretreatment: an in-depth purview of mechanics of the system

Lakshana G Nair #  1 , Komal Agrawal #  1   2 , Pradeep Verma  3
Affiliations
Review

Organosolv pretreatment: an in-depth purview of mechanics of the system

Lakshana G Nair et al. Bioresour Bioprocess. .

Abstract

The concept of biorefinery has been advancing globally and organosolv pretreatment strategy has seen an upsurge in research due to its efficiency in removing the recalcitrant lignin and dissolution of cellulose. The high-performance organosolv system uses green solvents and its reusability contributes concurrently to the biorefinery sector and sustainability. The major advantage of the current system involves the continuous removal of lignin to enhance cellulose accessibility, thereby easing the later biorefinery steps, which were immensely restricted due to the recalcitrant lignin. The current system process can be further explored and enhanced via the amalgamation of new technologies, which is still a work in progress. Thus, the current review summarizes organosolv pretreatment and the range of solvents used, along with a detailed mechanistic approach that results in efficient pretreatment of LCB. The latest developments for designing high-performance pretreatment systems, their pitfalls, and advanced assessments such as Life Cycle Assessment along with Techno-Economic Assessment have also been deliberated to allow an insight into its diverse potential applicability towards a sustainable future.

Keywords: Cellulose; Lignin; Lignocellulose biomass; Organic solvent; Pretreatment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Diagrammatical representation of the chemical structures of different components in lignocellulose
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Different types of organic solvents used in the organosolv process and their 3-D conformers. (The 3-D conformers have been freely accessed from https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Diagrammatical representation of the mechanistic action of organosolv pretreatment on lignocellulosic biomass
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Diagram demonstrating the reaction mechanism of alcohols with lignocellulosic biomass
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Diagrammatic representation of reaction mechanism of organic acids with lignocellulosic biomass
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Pictorial representation of the organosolv system and the different assistance methods available currently
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Achinivu EC, Mohan M, Choudhary H, et al. A predictive toolset for the identification of effective lignocellulosic pretreatment solvents: a case study of solvents tailored for lignin extraction. Green Chem. 2021;23:7269–7289. doi: 10.1039/d1gc01186c. - DOI
    1. Agnihotri S, Johnsen IA, Bøe MS, et al. Ethanol organosolv pretreatment of softwood (Picea abies) and sugarcane bagasse for biofuel and biorefinery applications. Wood Sci Technol. 2015;49:881–896. doi: 10.1007/s00226-015-0738-4. - DOI
    1. Aissou M, Chemat-Djenni Z, Yara-Varón E, et al. Limonene as an agro-chemical building block for the synthesis and extraction of bioactive compounds. Comptes Rendus Chim. 2017;20:346–358. doi: 10.1016/j.crci.2016.05.018. - DOI
    1. Alio MA, Tugui OC, Vial C, Pons A. Microwave-assisted Organosolv pretreatment of a sawmill mixed feedstock for bioethanol production in a wood biorefinery. Bioresour Technol. 2019;276:170–176. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2018.12.078. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ambaye TG, Vaccari M, Bonilla-Petriciolet A, et al. Emerging technologies for biofuel production: a critical review on recent progress, challenges and perspectives. J Environ Manage. 2021;290:112627. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112627. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources