Rhododendron and Japanese Knotweed: invasive species as innovative crops for second generation biofuels for the ionoSolv process.

We investigated the potential of two terrestrial biomass invasive species in the United-Kingdom as lignocellulosic biofuel feedstocks: Japanese Knotweed ( Fallopia japonica ) and Rhododendron ( Rhododendron ponticum ). We demonstrate that a pretreatment technique using a low-cost protic ionic liquid, the ionoSolv process, can be used for such types of plant species considered as waste, to allow their integration into a biorefinery. N , N , N -Dimethylbutylammonium hydrogen sulfate ([DMBA][HSO 4 ]) was able to fractionate the biomass into a cellulose-rich pulp and a lignin stream at high temperatures (150-170 °C) and short reaction times (15-60 minutes). More than 70-80% of the subsequent cellulose was hydrolysed into fermentable sugars, which were fermented into the renewable energy vector bioethanol.