Dr.Hiram,

There is a process known as "steam explosion" which is a physical method to fractionate lignocellulosic biomass into cellulose, hemi-cellulose and lignin. Sometimes this process is acid-catalyzed. Hope this helps.

Ionic liquids are mentioned here:

http://phys.org/news/2011-06-cellulose-breakdown.html

Fungi:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-07/dgi-bdc071311.php

A German article describes the breakdown of wood

into lignin and cellulose by cooking it with water

and alcohol under pressure (researcher is

Moritz Leschinsky).

http://www.fraunhofer.de/de/presse/presseinformationen/2012/oktober/holz-gaenzlich-in-seine-bestandteile-zerlegt.html

Regards,

Joachim

What about the sodium hydroxide/sodium sulfide method?

Thanks in advance for your kind comments and suggestions.

Dear Prof. Abu-Eishah, what is that method that you mention, do you have references regarding this??

Attached is just an example for the delignification process. The literature is full of proposed methods in the papermaking industry.

Thank you very much for your kind help. Best regards