Novel stationary basket reactor for effective biomass delignification with deep eutectic solvent

Biomass pretreatment and conversion are crucial for sustainable development, but lack information on equipment that ensures effective mass transfer and easy biomass separation post-process. This work introduces a novel basket reactor with a stationary bed (StatBioChem) for biomass processing using deep eutectic solvents (DESs). We compared the delignification efficiencies of soft and hard biomass samples processed in the StatBioChem reactor, a stirred tank reactor (STR), and a commercial SpinChem (R) reactor. The StatBioChem design allowed DES to flow evenly through biomass in the basket, achieving the highest delignification degree, particularly for hard biomass. This effect was not observed in the SpinChem (R) basket reactor. High delignification led to increased glucose yields in subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis. The StatBioChem effectively combines the simplicity and efficiency of an STR with the ease of solvent recovery typical of basket reactors.