Berkeley Lab, JBEI and Sandia researchers demonstrate next step in cellulosic biofuel production

In California, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) working at the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have demonstrated that adding carbon dioxide (CO2) gas during the deconstruction phase of biofuel production successfully neutralized the toxicity of ionic liquids, the room-temperature molten salt solvent used at JBEI to break down cellulosic plant material. Moreover, the process is easily reversible, allowing the liquid to be recycled for use as a solvent again.