The development of zero waste biorefineries is a promising yet challenging pathway towards a sustainable bioeconomy. Deep insights on the composition of biorefineries side streams along with the development of green technologies are mandatory to achieve such goal. In this paper, a sustainable pilote scale membrane process was used to recover valuable organic matter dissolved in the main side stream of a thermomechanical pulping (TMP) plant. A great number of analytical tools were combined to get an extensive characterisation of the generated fraction, including ICP-AES, HPIC-PAD, FTIR, SEC, 13
Catalytic depolymerization of lignin is a challenging process due to competitive repolymerization reactions. In this paper, the oxidative depolymerization of lignin was catalyzed by a commercial laccase both in a batch experiment and in a membrane bioreactor using the same catalytic conditions. The membrane bioreactor was previously optimized to reach high permeation flux (25 L.h-1 .m-2) during lignin diafiltration. While the lignin was exclusively condensed in the batch experiment leading to high molecular weight macromolecules (from 9 to 16 kDa), its depolymerization was effective in the bioreactor producing fragments of less than 1 kDa thanks to the in-situ extraction of the reaction products. This paper demonstrates that the reactor configuration is playing an essential role in triggering or preventing lignin condensation. It also reports the first proof-of-concept demonstrating that in-situ membrane extraction of the reactive fragments of lignin from the bulk medium can be useful against detrimental repolymerization reactions.
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