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The deconstruction of cellulose is an essential step in the production of ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass. However, the presence of lignin hinders this process. Recently, a novel cosolvent based biomass pretreatment method called CELF (Cosolvent Enhanced Lignocellulosic Fractionation) which employs tetrahydrofuran (THF) in a single phase mixture with water, was found to be highly effective at solubilizing and extracting lignin from lignocellulosic biomass and achieving high yields of fermentable sugars. Here, using all-atom molecular-dynamics simulation, we find that THF preferentially solvates lignin, and in doing so, shifts the equilibrium configurational distribution of the biopolymer from a crumpled globule to coil, independent of temperature. Whereas pure water is a bad solvent for lignin, the THF : water cosolvent acts as a “theta” solvent, in which solvent : lignin and lignin : lignin interactions are …