Screening of protic ionic liquids for sugarcane bagasse pretreatment

•11 protic IL’s were studied in pretreatment followed by enzymatic hydrolysis.•IL’s with acetate anion showed better performance than hydrogen sulfate.•[Me(NH2)(CH2)2OH] [OAc] presented the highest yield in enzymatic hydrolysis.•Cation with higher chains had the lowest glucose yields on enzymatic hydrolysis. Protic ionic liquids have been demonstrated to be a promising alternative for the pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomasses, since they can provide higher enzymatic hydrolysis yields than other commonly used pretreatments. In this study, eleven protic ionic liquid — each one a combination of acetic or sulfuric acid with various amines — were evaluated as pretreatment agents. The highest glucose and xylose yields in the enzymatic hydrolysis were observed using the ionic liquids with acetic acid, and the best performance in the acetate anion group was obtained with N-methyl-2-hydroxyethylammonium acetate, [Me(NH2)(CH2)2OH] [OAc], 72% and 45.9% of glucose and xylose yields, respectively, in 48 h, 10% (w/w) solids loading and enzyme loading of 15 FPU·g−1 bagasse.