METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TREATMENT OF BIOMASS SUBSTRATES

1 . A method for the treatment of biomass comprising mixing a biomass with an ionic liquid (IL) to swell said biomass and electromagnetic (EM) heating, preferably radiofrequency (RF) heating or infrared (IR) heating, said swelled biomass.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said biomass is agricultural residues, preferably corn stover, wheat straw, bagasse, rice hulls, or rice straw; wood and forest residues, preferably pine, poplar, douglas fir, oak, saw dust, paper/pulp waste, or wood fiber; algae; kudzu; coal; cellulose, lignin, herbaceous energy crops, preferably switchgrass, reed canary grass, or miscanthus; lingocellulosic biomass, preferably comprising lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose; plant biomass; or mixtures thereof.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein heating comprises at least two phases, a first phase comprising application of electromagnetic (EM) heating, preferably a variable frequency in the electromagnetic spectrum, variable frequency heating, infrared (IR) heating, variable (IR) heating, radiofrequency (RF) heating, or a combination thereof, and a second phase comprising application of ultrasonics, electromagnetic (EM), convective, conductive heating, or combinations thereof.

4 . (canceled)

5 . (canceled)

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said radiofrequency comprises a frequency between about 1-900 MHz, 300 kHz-3 MHz, 3-30 MHz, 30-300 MHz, 13, 13.56, 27, 27.12, 40, or 40.68 MHz.

7 . (canceled)

8 . (canceled)

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said biomass is heated to a temperature of at least about 1-300° C., 50° C.-100° C., 60° C.-130° C., 80° C.-175° C., 100° C.-240° C., 90° C., 100° C., 105° C., 110° C., 115° C., 120° C., 125° C., 130° C., 135° C., 140° C., 145° C., or 150° C.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said biomass is heated for about 1 minute to 100 hours, least 5-10 seconds, 1-30 minutes, 5-30 minutes, or 20-240 minutes, 1-60 minutes, 1-24 hours, 5-10 minutes, 5-30 minutes, 10-50 minutes, 5 minutes to 3 hours, 1-3 hours, 2-4 hours, 3-6 hours, or 4-8 hours.

11 . (canceled)

12 . (canceled)

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said method further comprises washing the treated biomass.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein said washing comprises washing the biomass with a liquid non-solvent for cellulose that is miscible with water and the ionic liquid (IL).

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the liquid non-solvent used for washing is water, an alcohol, acetonitrile or a solvent which dissolves the IL and thereby extracts the IL from the biomass.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the alcohol is ethanol, methanol, butanol, propanol, or mixtures thereof.

17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein said ionic liquid is recovered from the liquid non-solvent by a method selected from one or more of activated charcoal treatment, distillation, membrane separation, electro-chemical separation techniques, sold-phase extraction liquid-liquid extraction, or a combination thereof.

18 . The method of claim 15 , wherein said ionic liquid is recovered from the liquid non-solvent by application of electromagnetic heating, preferably radiofrequency heating or infrared heating, that dehydrates the ionic liquid.

19 . (canceled)

20 . (canceled)

21 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said method comprises incubating the biomass in a sufficient amount of an ionic liquid (IL) for a sufficient time to swell the biomass.

22 . (canceled)

23 . (canceled)

24 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the ionic liquid comprises a cation structure that includes ammonium, sulfonium, phosphonium, lithium, imidazolium, pyridinium, picolinium, pyrrolidinium, thiazolium, triazolium, oxazolium, or combinations thereof.

25 . The method of claim 24 , wherein the ionic liquid comprises a cation selected from imidazolium, pyrrolidinium, pyridinium, phosphonium, ammonium, or a combination thereof.

26 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the ionic liquid (IL) is 1-n-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, 1-allyl-3-methyl imidazolium chloride, 3-methyl-N-butylpyridinium chloride, 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium acetate, 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium propionatem, or combinations thereof.

27 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said method is a continuous process.

28 - 35 . (canceled)

36 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said method further comprises treating said treated biomass with biochemical reagents, preferably an enzyme, to convert the cellulose and hemicellulose to sugars, preferably hexose and pentose sugars.

37 - 40 . (canceled)

41 . The method of claim 36 , wherein said biochemical reagents are thermophilic enzymes, preferably enzymes that are active up to about 70° C.

28 . (canceled)

43 . The method of claim 36 , wherein said sugars are converted to renewable fuels, chemicals and materials, preferably ethanol, butanol, lactic acid, gasoline, biodiesel, methane, hydrogen, electricity, plastics, composites, protein, drugs, fertilizers or other components thereof.

44 . The method of claim 43 , wherein said chemicals are succinic acid, glycerol, 3-hydropropoionic acid, 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF), 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF), furfural, 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid, itaconic acid, levulinic acid, aldehydes, alcohols, amines, terephthalic acid, hexamethylenediamine, isoprene, polyhydroxyalkanoates, 1,3-propanediol, or mixtures thereof.

45 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said method further comprises recovering the enzymes.

46 - 64 . (canceled)

65 . A method of acidolysis of biomass comprising

(a) mixing biomass in an ionic liquid (IL) to swell said biomass;

(b) adding an acid, preferably sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, or phosphoric acid, preferably lowering the pH of the biomass below pH 7, preferably a pH between 1-6;

(c) applying radio frequency (RF) heating or infrared heating to the biomass to heat to a target temperature range, preferably 50-220° C.;

(d) applying ultrasonic heating, electromagnetic (EM) heating, convective heating, conductive heating, or combinations thereof, to the biomass to maintain the biomass at said target temperature range;

(e) preferably washing the treated biomass; and

(f) recovering sugars, preferably pentose and hexose sugars, and release lignin.

66 - 107 . (canceled)

108 . A system for dehydrating a liquid mixture comprising an ionic liquid and water, the system comprising:

at least one planar surface, said at least one surface configured to irradiate infrared radiation;

at least one radiation source adjacent to the planar surface;

at least two panel strips adjacent to said surface, said panel strips arranged in parallel to form at least one channel for the liquid mixture; and

at least one variable electrode arranged to fit into at least one of the at least one channels, said variable electrode comprising one or more thin metal strip sheets.

109 - 114 . (canceled)

115 . A system for dehydrating a liquid mixture comprising an ionic liquid and water, the system comprising:

a planar surface comprising one or more plates;

device having an outlet, the outlet projecting through the planar surface, said device configured to spray said liquid mixture in a direction away from the planar surface, wherein the device is configured to spray the liquid mixture to at least a first distance from the outlet; and

at least one radiation source adjacent to the planar surface, said radiation source configured to emit radiation towards said liquid mixture when it is sprayed from the outlet.

116 - 125 . (canceled)

126 . The system of claim 115 , wherein the radiation emitted from the radiation source causes at least some of the water in the liquid mixture to evaporate as the radiation interacts with the liquid mixture.