Recovery of Ionic Liquid from the Model Solution Mixture Mimicking the Catalytically Hydrolyzed Cellulose Product Utilizing Amberlyst Ion-Exchange Resin

The hydrolysis of cellulose using ionic liquid (IL) has been extensively studied but there is limited understanding of the removal of IL from the biomass hydrolysate. Finding a suitable method for the recovery and reuse of IL is one of the biggest challenges before its large-scale application. Selecting an appropriate combined recovery process is very important. This study proposed a facile ion-exchange combined method for the recovery of IL from the modeled cellulose hydrolysate mixture containing sugars as well as γ-valerolactone (GVL) via an adsorption–desorption mechanism using sulfonic acid cation-exchange (Amberlyst 15 (H)) resin. The results showed that the resin could adsorb more than 94% of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride [Emim]Cl IL at ambient conditions within a contact time of 20 min. The other coexisting constituents like glucose and GVL have no significant effect on the adsorption efficiency of IL. The adsorption of IL on Amberlyst 15 (H) resin was observed to be pseudo-second-order adsorption. The regeneration of the adsorbed IL was possible up to 70% using low-cost, easily available sodium chloride (NaCl) solution. Similarly, despite the interference of other unwanted byproducts in the real biomass hydrolysate sample, an IL adsorption efficiency up to 51% was reached under similar operating conditions. This study thus opens the facile possibility of extracting and recycling IL used in the biomass hydrolysis process.