Kraft lignin biorefinery: A perspective

Jianjun Hu; Quanguo Zhang; Duu-Jong Lee

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2017.08.169

Kraft lignin biorefinery: A perspective

Bioresour Technol. 2018 Jan:247:1181-1183. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.08.169. Epub 2017 Sep 1.

Authors

Jianjun Hu¹, Quanguo Zhang¹, Duu-Jong Lee²

Affiliations

¹ Collaborative Innovation Center of Biomass Energy, Henan Agricultural University, Henan Province, Zhengzhou, China.
² Collaborative Innovation Center of Biomass Energy, Henan Agricultural University, Henan Province, Zhengzhou, China; Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 10607, Taiwan; Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan. Electronic address: djlee@ntu.edu.tw.

PMID: 28899675
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.08.169

Abstract

Lignin is a huge energy and carbon reserve but owing to its highly biologically recalcitrant nature it is commonly regarded as a waste in lignocellulosic biomass biorefinery. To realize the lignin biorefinery, it is proposed to use Kraft lignin, isolated from black liquor from Kraft pulping mills, as starting material to be fragmented by fast pyrolysis or selective catalysis to aromatic sub-units and to be post-refining with additional cleavage reaction and separation/purification as commodity aromatics pool in chemical industries. This Note calls for research efforts on detailed investigation of the feasibility of this proposed scenario.

Keywords: Aromatics; Biorefinery; Lignin; Pulping.

MeSH terms

Biomass*
Carbon
Catalysis
Lignin*

Substances

Carbon
Kraft lignin
Lignin