Abstract
It has been known that the yield of lignin monomers during lignin depolymerization is limited by the irreversible condensations of lignin in the fractionation and/or depolymerization process. In this study, we report a new oxidative catalytic fractionation (OCF) process with a simple and effective one-pot but two-step approach to depolymerize lignin to lignin-derived chemicals (LDCs) using polyoxometalate (POM) as the only catalyst. First, the POM effectively catalyzed the methoxylation of the active α-OH groups of lignin in a methanol and water mixture at low temperature (100 °C), and 96% of the stabilized lignin in the lignocellulose sawdust was extracted to the solution simultaneously. Then the lignin solution was heated to an elevated temperature (140 °C) in the same solvent. As a result, 74.0 wt % of the lignin (based on the weight of the Klason lignin in the wood) was converted to LDCs, including 45.9 wt % aromatic monomers.
Original language | American English |
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Pages (from-to) | 7719-7727 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering |
Volume | 9 |
Issue number | 23 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 14 Jun 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2021 American Chemical Society.
NREL Publication Number
- NREL/JA-2800-79079
Keywords
- Lignin depolymerization
- Lignin-first
- Oxidative catalytic fractionation
- Polyoxometalate
- Sustainable chemistry