The use of biomass as fuels, feedstock and materials has gained recognition in recent years.
Developing sustainable solvents for biomass processing and recovery remains a challenge of
the chemical industry. Room temperature ionic liquids have been designed for application in
biomass waste recovery. Their polarities have been determined and it was found that protic
alkylammonium ionic liquids have high α and β values. A comparison of the Kamlet Taft
properties with that of alkylimidazolium ionic liquids shows that polarities can be expanded
by changing the functionalities on the anion and cation. The stabilities of ammonium ionic
liquids as shown by thermogravimetric analysis are lower than their imidazolium
counterparts. All ionic liquids have been found to heat up appreciably under microwave
irradiation. Their effectiveness as solvents for carbohydrates and biomass has been
examined. It was found that the solubility of carbohydrates by ionic liquids is dependent on
the polarity of the ionic liquids and other factors such as temperature and the presence of
water. High α HBD ability and high β HBA ability were found to promote solubility of
glucose and sucrose in ionic liquids, while high β and low α were found to promote cellulose
solubility. A novel extraction protocol for the delignification of lignocellulosic biomass
wastes under microwave irradiation has been designed that can reduce the amount of waste
effluents produced from the process.