The breakdown of cellulose in the conversion of wood and other cellulosic biomass into component sugars is considered the “bottleneck” in cellulose ethanol production technology. The biological route (involving the use of cellulose-degrading enzymes or microorganisms) is said to be limited by the cost of the enzymes. On the other hand, non-biological methods use extreme (and energy intensive) conditions such as high temperature/pressure or very acid environments. Recently, a team of German Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research developed a non-biological wood-to-sugar-conversion technology which can be carried out at room temperature. The method is a two step process: (1) the dissolution of the wood in an ionic liquid (-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (BMIMCl)), converting wood into shorter molecules containing a few glucose units (also called “oligomers”), and (2) the use of acidic solid resins to split the oligormers into individual sugars. The sugars obtained can be further processed into biofuels. The solid resin can easily be separated from the reaction mixture by filtration. The remaining challenge is to find cost effective ways to separate the ionic liquid..