Open Access
Molecular interaction between ionic liquids with lignin dimers
1 Gerencia de Refinación de Hidrocarburos, Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas Norte 152 Col. San Bartolo Atepehuacán, Delegación Gustavo A. Madero, Cuidad de México, 07730, México
2 Laboratorio, 1División de Estudios de Posgrado e Investigación, Instituto Tecnológico de Cuidad Madero, Ave. 1º de Mayo y Sor Juana I. De la Cruz Col. Los Mangos, Cd. Madero, Tamaulipas, 89440, México
Abstract
Biomass is an alternative to using fossil fuels. It is made up mainly of agricultural and forestry residues. The main components of biomass are cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignocellulose (Li, 2015). Due to the structure of lignin and its chemical properties, chemical products based on aromatic compounds and fuels can be obtained (Sangha, 2012). However, its recalcitrant nature and the difficulties encountered in effecting depolymerization, coupled with its low solubility with common organic solvents, result in conversion processes that use extreme conditions of temperature, pressure and acidity (Hicks, 2011). Ionic liquids (ILs) are advantageous solvents for the conversion of lignin to a value-added product due to their ease of dissolving it. In this work we studied the interaction of nine different ILs, formed between the [EMIM+], [BMIM+] y [HMIM+] and the anions [BF4-], [OAc-] and [Cl-], whose use has been reported in the industrial pretreatment of lignocellulose (For, 2007), and lignin dimersderived from coniferyl alcohol (one of the basic units of lignin), which contain the characteristic β-O-4 bond of the biopolymer. Born-Oppenheimer (DMBO) quantum molecular dynamics calculations were performed with the BIOVIA 2016 Materials Studio program (BIOVIA, Dassault Systèmes, 2017), varying the pressure and temperature conditions with the micro canonical assemblies NVE and NVT. The results obtained with the NVE and NVT assemblies show that for some LIs the interaction is favorable and for others there is a great destabilization of the Lignin-IL interaction.
Keywords
biomass,lignin,fuel,biopolymer,ensembles
How to Cite
Garcia-Cruz, I., Campa-Guevara, D. L., Gallardo-Rivas, N. V., & Guerrero-Zúñiga, L. A. (2021). Molecular interaction between ionic liquids with lignin dimers. Renewable Energy, Biomass & Sustainability, 3(1), 47–60. https://doi.org/10.56845/rebs.v3i1.36
References
ARCONEL, (2016). Balance Nacional de Energía Eléctrica.
BIOVIA, Dassault Systèmes, Discovery Studio Modeling Environment, Release (2017), San Diego, USA.
Chakar, F. S., and Ragauskas, A. J. (2004). Review of current and future softwood kraft lignin process chemistry, in Industrial Crops and Products.
Cox, B. J., Jia, S., Zhang, Z. C., and Ekerdt, J. G. (2011). Catalytic degradation of lignin model compounds in acidic imidazolium based ionic liquids: Hammett acidity and anion effects. Polym. Degrad. Stab. 96(4), 426–431.
Fort D., Remsing, R. C., Swatloski R. P., Moyna P.;,Moyna G., Rogers R. D. (2007). Can ionic liquids dissolve wood? Processing and analysis of Ligno-cellulosic materials with 1-n-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride. Green Chem. 9, 63-72