Flowthrough Reductive Catalytic Fractionation of Biomass

Abstract

Lignin, a major component of biomass, is typically treated as waste, squandering a natural source of aromatics for high-value chemical production. Here, we demonstrate the fractionation of biomass using flowthrough reactors to semicontinuously extract and depolymerize lignin into monomeric phenols. Flow processing allows for insights into the mechanistic steps of the lignin fractionation process, which are obscured in traditional batch processing. Lignin fractionation in flow will be essential for the integration of lignin processing in the complete utilization of biomass for chemicals production.

Process Design and Economics for the Conversion of Lignocellulosic Biomass to Hydrocarbon Fuels and Coproducts: 2018 Biochemical Design Case Update; Biochemical Deconstruction and Conversion of Biomass to Fuels and Products via Integrated Biorefinery Pathways

“…Chemical catalytic processes that integrate deconstruction of residual solids with catalytic upgrading, i.e. the RCF concepts discussed above, are targeting highvalue chemicals and fuels from lignin [162][163][164]. Recent efforts have focused on improving both carbon selectivity and atom efficient conversion for these upgrading options, as well as driving down catalyst costs.…”

Synergistic Production of Methyl Lactate from Carbohydrates Using an Ionic Liquid Functionalized Sn‐Containing Catalyst

“…There has been an unprecedented international interest in the efficient utilization of renewable biomass resources for the sustainable production of liquid fuels and chemicals in view of establishing sustainable social development and improving climate conditions . Therefore, the exploration of highly efficient and environment‐friendly catalytic routes for the selective conversion of biomass carbohydrates to liquid fuels and valuable chemicals has high strategic significance and great urgency …”

Investigation of the Reaction Pathways of Biomass‐Derived Oxygenate Conversion into Monoalcohols in Supercritical Methanol with CuMgAl‐Mixed‐Metal Oxide

“…The rates of different reactions were also compared by using the space-time yield (STY), which is defined here as the moles of product from reactant divided by the moles of reactant, the mass of catalyst, and the reaction time, as shown in Equation (5).…”

“…[1][2][3] Ar ecent approachf irst proposed by Ford and co-workersi nvolves the supercritical methanol depolymerization and hydrodeoxygenation (SCM-DHDO)o fb iomass into monoalcohols and cyclohexyl alcohols with aC uMgAlc atalyst. [4][5][6][7][8] This process has an umber of advantages including very high yields (up to 121 wt %d ue to methanol incorporation and complete conversion of biomasst op roducts)o ff uel range alcohols, all reactions occurinasinglereactor,and it utilizes all fractionso fb iomass including the energy-rich lignin fraction.T he alcohol products could either potentiallyb eu sed directly as af uelo ru pgraded by condensation or oligomerization. [9][10][11] Other biomass conversion processes like enzymatic hydrolysis, supercritical water hydrolysis, or aqueous-phase hydrodeoxygenation require separate depolymerization and sugar conversion steps that lead to lower yields and higher processing costs.…”