Value-added chemicals from sugarcane bagasse using ionic liquids

The sugarcane bagasse (SCB) can be utilized to obtain various value-added products like levulinic acid, glucose, xylose, ethanol, etc. with suitable pretreatment and subsequent extraction and isolation processes. There are several ways to pretreat SCB and one among them is by using ionic liquids (ILs). The ILs are non-volatile and versatile solvents used mainly due to their efficiency in promoting cell disruption and by altering cellulose crystallinity, thereby making the SCB more accessible to the enzymes. The pretreatment is followed by enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation to obtain a variety of products. The first objective of this minireview is to put forward an up-to-date survey of pretreating renewable SCB using non-volatile ILs to form value-added products, thus helping in selection of the best IL for this purpose. The second objective is to understand various ways to open doors for use of ILs in biorefineries by reducing cost of IL, by recycling and reusing the ILs or by reducing loading amounts of ILs. A link between ILs and solid wastes recovery as well as their reuse is presented in a circular bioeconomy aspect. In future, biorefineries may use ILs in the processing of lignocellulose.