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Journal articleChakrabarti BK, Hayyan M, Syed Putra SS, et al., 2026,
Deep eutectic solvents in battery recycling: A sustainable path forward
, Journal of Power Sources, Vol: 670, ISSN: 0378-7753The recycling of various energy storage materials, including but not limited to lithium-based batteries, has become increasingly important due to the rapid growth of the battery sector and its potential to strain global material supply chains. Recycling not only helps recover valuable metals and minerals but also reduces reliance on environmentally harmful mining practices and creates local economic opportunities. However, current recycling methods often involve chemical processes that are not entirely environmentally friendly. As a greener alternative, deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are drawing attention for their potential in battery recycling technologies. This review explores the progress on DESs in this field. It also examines the recycling of polymer components, often overlooked but crucial for a complete recycling strategy. Furthermore, a brief life-cycle-assessment (LCA) is included to evaluate the environmental benefits and limitations of DES-based recycling. Early integration of LCA can guide sustainable process development, identify environmental trade-offs, and support sound decision-making, aligning emerging recycling technologies with sustainability targets and regulatory frameworks. While energy storage represents the bottleneck to a successful energy transition, the recycling of materials used in storage devices constitutes the foundation of a true circular economy, in which DES systems possess the potential to play a pivotal role.
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Book chapterHallett J, 2026,
DYERECYCLE – Materials and Longevity
, Global Fashion Conference, Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland, Pages: 67-71, ISBN: 9783032020697 -
Journal articleEwulonu CM, Akromah S, Lee K-Y, et al., 2025,
Looking Beyond Pure Cellulose to Lignocellulose for Regenerated Continuous Spun Filaments
, ACS OMEGA, ISSN: 2470-1343 -
Journal articleAkaya H, Ouzrour Z, Aziz K, et al., 2025,
Valorization of Moroccan Alfa Grass through Pyrolytic Conversion to Biochar for Atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> Capture
, ACS OMEGA, Vol: 10, Pages: 58991-59003, ISSN: 2470-1343 -
Journal articleLuan S, Nisar S, Phipps J, et al., 2025,
Optimization of the ionoSolv process for the preservation of pulp fibre dimensions
, INDUSTRIAL CROPS AND PRODUCTS, Vol: 236, ISSN: 0926-6690 -
Journal articleWesinger S, Rabiner A, Meyer N, et al., 2025,
Sequential fractionation and polyoxometalate‐catalyzed oxidation of lignocellulosic biomass improves cellulose purity and formic acid yield
, Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining, Vol: 19, Pages: 1862-1874, ISSN: 1932-104XLignocellulosic biomass is an important source of renewable chemicals and materials but its full valorization is necessary in order to achieve economic and sustainability goals. This study proposes a two-step approach for the valorization of lignocellulosic biomass combining solvent-assisted fractionation and catalytic oxidation with molecular oxygen to generate cellulose and formic acid. An industrially relevant lignocellulosic substrate, beech wood, was fractionated under a nitrogen atmosphere using either an organosolv (methanol or ethanol) or ionosolv (ionic liquid) aqueous solvent to produce dissolved hemicellulose and lignin as well as a cellulose-rich solid. The dissolved components were oxidized catalytically to formic acid and its derivatives in a second step using the fivefold vanadium substituted Keggin-type polyoxometalate H8[PV5Mo7O40]. Enzymatic hydrolysis of the cellulose-enriched solid generated purified glucose higher in yields than the single-step comparison method. The organosolv-fractionation increased enzymatic saccharification to 78% whereas the ionosolv-fractionation increased the saccharification yield to 68%, in comparison with 18% for the one-step conversion and only 8% for the untreated beech wood. In the oxidation step, a 28% formic acid yield was achieved under 125 °C, 1200 rpm, 30 bar oxygen, and 6.5 h reaction conditions. The improvements observed for the two-step approach are attributed to the influence of the solvent on the catalyst preventing the latter from interacting with the cellulose-enriched solid, which improved the quality of the pulp and increased the overall formic acid yield.
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Journal articleArtime IF, Al Ghatta A, Ouitrakoon P, et al., 2025,
Surfactant-assisted ionic liquid fractionation of spruce produces a low molar weight and less condensed lignin
, Industrial Crops and Products, Vol: 235, ISSN: 0926-6690Surfactant-assisted ionoSolv fractionation of spruce sawdust was investigated with the aim of improving the fractionation performance and the quality of the recovered fractions. Anionic surfactants sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and linear alkylbenzenesulfonate (LAS) were added to ionic liquid (IL) water mixtures of N,N-dimethylbutylammonium hydrogen sulphate ([DMBA][HSO4]) containing 20–50 wt% water to process spruce sawdust at 150 and 170 °C for 30–60 min. 1H NMR spectroscopy established that the processing conditions partly hydrolysed SDS whilst leaving LAS untouched. The use of LAS surfactant decreased the fractionation time but did not encourage the use of a higher water content. IonoSolv fractionation employing 2–10 wt% LAS and 20 wt% water resulted in faster delignification, decreasing the reaction time by 50 % at 150 ºC, with small improvements in cellulose recovery (87.6 % with 2 wt% LAS vs 83.7 % without LAS at 150 ºC). Post-treatment lignin analysis showed that the lignin structure was less condensed when LAS was present during the fractionation. Addition of surfactant had a lightening effect on the colour of the recovered lignin fractions, which is a key feature for its use in applications such as coatings, cosmetics or sunscreen additives. A proportion of LAS surfactant precipitated with the lignin fraction and was found to be mainly physically associated to lignin, although traces of condensed lignin-LAS were also detected. Whilst the extent to which surfactants may assist ionoSolv fractionation was limited, the study highlights the importance of characterising both lignin and cellulose chemical compositions.
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Journal articleWang W, Nakasu PYS, Costa JM, et al., 2025,
Pectin Extracted by a Recyclable Molecular Mixture: A Promising Material for Porous Membranes in Quasi-Solid-State Na-Ion Batteries
, ACS SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY & ENGINEERING, Vol: 13, Pages: 18061-18074, ISSN: 2168-0485 -
Journal articleWesinger S, Rabiner A, Nisar S, et al., 2025,
Boosting POM-ionosolv biorefining of lignocellulosic biomass by using redox-balanced polyoxometalate catalysts in methanolic ionic liquid reaction media
, ChemSusChem, Vol: 18, ISSN: 1864-5631This article presents an advanced iteration of the polyoxometalate (POM)-Ionosolv concept to generate biobased methyl formate in high yield and a bleached cellulose pulp from lignocellulosic biomass in a single-step operation by using redox-balanced POM catalysts and molecular oxygen in alcoholic ionic liquid (IL) mixtures. The performance of the three Ionosolv-ILs triethylammonium hydrogen sulfate ([TEA][HSO4]), N,N-dimethylbutylammonium hydrogen sulfate ([DMBA][HSO4]), and tributylmethylphosphonium methyl sulfate ([TBMP][MeSO4]), mixed with methanol (MeOH) (30/70 wt%), is evaluated by methyl formate yield from extracted hemicellulose and lignin as well as purity of the bleached cellulose pulp in the presence of various Keggin-type POMs. The redox-balanced H8PVMnMo10O40 POM catalyst in [TBMP][MeSO4]/MeOH emerge as the most effective combination, achieving 20% methyl formate yield from commercial beech wood. The glucan content in the bleached cellulose-enriched solid consisted is over 90%, demonstrating that the use of MeOH drastically improved lignin extraction in parallel with full hemicellulose extraction. The cellulose is highly susceptible to enzymatic hydrolysis, generating a pure and concentrated cellulosic glucose stream. The formed solid catalyst complex is examined in detail to reveal its chemical nature as POM-IL-complex. The approach is applicable to disparate types of lignocellulosic biomass, including hardwood, softwood, and grass.
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Journal articleNisar S, Barbará PV, Chachuat B, et al., 2025,
Near-infrared spectroscopy for rapid compositional analysis of cellulose pulps after fractionation with ionic liquids
, Biomass and Bioenergy, Vol: 201, ISSN: 0961-9534The composition of cellulose-enriched solids is typically monitored using a laborious and expensive wet-lab analytical method. Here, the development and application of an alternative tool that uses NIR spectroscopy and a software sensor is reported, drawing on a large data set (149 training samples) consisting of untreated grass, hardwood, and softwood biomass and cellulose pulps obtained after fractionation with the low-cost ionic liquids triethylammonium hydrogen sulfate ([TEA][HSO4]) or N,N-dimethylbutylammonium hydrogen sulfate ([DMBA][HSO4]) mixed with water. A partial least squares (PLS) model was trained on compositions determined with the traditional wet-lab procedure, followed by the application of an uncertainty quantification framework to estimate confidence in the predictions. Good agreement with the wet-lab experimental data (mean absolute errors on unseen samples below 5%) was found for ionic liquid fractionated cellulose and purified cellulose samples generated with non-ionoSolv approaches. Cellulose with low crystallinity and isolated lignins generated poor fits, suggesting that more specialised models are needed. The sugar-derived pseudo-lignin (humin) content in the cellulose pulp was estimated by comparing the model with a second PLS model that excluded charred (over-treated) pulps. The study shows that NIR soft-sensors can cost- and time-effectively estimate the composition of ionoSolv-based pulps, speeding up process and product development and facilitating process operation.
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