In recent years,ionic liquids (ILs) were widely used in the pretreatment of cellulose for the production of biofuel [1-3].In this study,IL 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium dimethylphosphate ([Emim][Me2PO4]) was chosen as an environment-friendly solvent to enzymatically in situ hydrolyze cellulose in view of its biocompatibility with both lignocellulose solubility and cellulase activity.Under the optimum reaction condition,80.4% of cellulose (10 mg/mL) was converted to glucose in the aqueous/IL/DMSO (74/25/1,v/v/v) media by cellulase after 20 h at 55 ℃.However,separation of the hydrophilic IL from the complex hydrolyzates is a difficult task,and few references reported the separation of the hydrophilic IL from the mixture of glucose and IL.In our case,ion exchange resin PCR-642 Na+ column chromatography was successfully used for separating the IL [Emim][Me2PO4] from hydrolyzates with the isolated yield 94.9% (w/w),and 91.4% of glucose remained in the aqueous phase.Neutral A12O3 column chromatography was also used to separate [Emim][Me2PO4] and glucose,under the optimized conditions,the recovery of IL and glucose could reach 92.1 and 90.5%,respectively.These two methods were relatively efficient,and could be easy to scale-up.Furthermore,the IL could be reused for in situ saccharification,and glucose could be efficiently fermented into ethanol.In conclusion,the IL [Emim][Me2PO4] as the solvent for enzymatic in situ hydrolysis of cellulose could be efficiently separated from the complex hydrolyzates,although its cost should be reduced and in-depth exploration of this subject is needed.