Levulinic Acid-Based "Green" Solvents for Lignocellulose Fractionation: On the Superior Extraction Yield and Selectivity toward LigninShow others and affiliations
2023 (English)In: Biomacromolecules, ISSN 1525-7797, E-ISSN 1526-4602, Vol. 24, no 7, p. 3094-3104Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The high potential use of lignin in novel biomaterialsand chemicalsrepresents an important opportunity for the valorization of the mostabundant natural resource of aromatic molecules. From an environmentalperspective, it is highly desirable replacing the hazardous methodscurrently used to extract lignin from lignocellulosic biomass anddevelop more sustainable and environmentally friendly approaches.Therefore, in this work, levulinic acid (a "green" solventobtained from biomass) was successfully used, for the first time,to selectively extract high-quality lignin from pine wood sawdustresidues at 200 degrees C for 6 h (at atmospheric pressure). Moreover,the addition of catalytic concentrations of inorganic acids (i.e.,H2SO4 or HCl) was found to substantially reducethe temperature and reaction times needed (i.e., 140 degrees C, 2 h)for complete lignin extraction without compromising its purity. NMRdata suggests that condensed OH structures and acidic groups are presentin the lignin following extraction. Levulinic acid can be easily recycledand efficiently reused several times without affecting its performance.Furthermore, excellent solvent reusability and performance of extractionof other wood residues has been successfully demonstrated, thus makingthe developed levulinic acid-based procedure highly appealing andpromising to replace the traditional less sustainable methodologies.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
American Chemical Society (ACS), 2023. Vol. 24, no 7, p. 3094-3104
National Category
Chemical Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-48773DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.3c00169ISI: 001006246800001PubMedID: 37288956Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85164266758OAI: oai:DiVA.org:miun-48773DiVA, id: diva2:1778004
2023-06-302023-06-302023-08-14Bibliographically approved