3. Results and discussion
3.1. Approach for extractive removal of lignin from biomass using
room temperature ionic liquid
The widespread utilization of lignocellulosic biomass as a raw
material for the production of biofuels, chemicals and materials
and its inherent compositional variability makes the rapid assessment
of its composition of critical importance, particularly as we
move toward renewable resources [17]. A major impediment in
assessing the composition and in utilizing lignocellulosic biomass
is the intractable properties of lignin, which is extremely difficult
to extract [18–20]. Until now most laboratories assess lignin content
of biomass in multistep processes involving lignin extraction
and closure of mass balance [24]. More recently, FTIR spectroscopy
[25] has been used to estimate lignin content as well as solutionstate
13C NMR spectroscopy but these methods require finding