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Molecular weight-based fractionation of lignin oils by membrane separation technology

  • Viviana Polizzi ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Kelly Servaes , Pieter Vandezande , Panos D. Kouris , Ana M. Panaite , Griet Jacobs , Emiel J.M. Hensen , Michael D. Boot and Karolien Vanbroekhoven
Published/Copyright: November 16, 2019
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Abstract

Lignin is a renewable and abundant source for production of bio-based chemicals and is a valuable alternative to crude oil to obtain aromatic building blocks. It is built from aromatic units with strong chemical linkages, which need to be cleaved to enable the use of the aromatic compounds in industrial applications. In addition to depolymerizing lignin, efficient fractionation and conversion of the resulting complex mixtures is an essential step in the valorization of lignin derivatives for different applications. In this work, we studied the separation of a lignin oil obtained by catalytic cleavage in supercritical ethanol (scEtOH) of technical lignin produced by means of soda pulping of wheat straw. The use of six commercial polymeric nanofiltration (NF) membranes and one in-house developed Grignard-functionalized ceramic membrane was investigated for the fractionation of a mixture of lignin derivatives. Separation by molecular weight (MW) was observed with the polymeric NP030 membrane but not with the other membranes tested. The development of a protocol using this membrane in the diafiltration mode for fractionation of crude lignin oils (CLOs) is discussed.

Acknowledgments

B. Bongers, J. Boeckx, W. Porto-Carrero are acknowledged for executing the experimental membrane separation trials.

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: This study was performed in the framework of the BIO-HArT project, financed within the Interreg V program Netherlands-Flanders, the cross-border cooperation program with financial support from the European Regional Development Fund.

  3. Employment or leadership: None declared.

  4. Honorarium: None declared.

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Received: 2018-12-19
Accepted: 2019-10-02
Published Online: 2019-11-16
Published in Print: 2020-02-25

©2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. The 15th European Workshop on Lignocellulosics and Pulp (EWLP) in Aveiro, Portugal (June 26–29, 2018)
  4. Review
  5. Extractives and biological activities of Lamiaceae species growing in Uzbekistan
  6. Original Articles
  7. New drum-chipping technology for a more uniform size distribution of wood chips
  8. Characterization of enzyme-resistant xylooligosaccharides extracted from hardwood chips by pre-hydrolysis and further depolymerized by enzymatic treatment
  9. Stabilising mannose using sodium dithionite at alkaline conditions
  10. Xylan accessibility of bleached eucalypt pulp in alkaline solutions
  11. Investigation of eucalypt and pine wood acid-soluble lignin by Py-GC-MS
  12. The reaction of lignin model compounds during enzymatic bleaching with a Curvularia verruculosa haloperoxidase: impact on chlorination
  13. Molecular weight-based fractionation of lignin oils by membrane separation technology
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  15. Impact of birch xylan composition and structure on film formation and properties
  16. Gram-scale economical synthesis of trans-coniferyl alcohol and its corresponding thiol
  17. Lignosulfonate-based polyurethane materials via cyclic carbonates: preparation and characterization
  18. Bioconversion of pine stumps to ethanol: pretreatment and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation
  19. Selective recovery of polyphenols from MDF process waters by adsorption on a macroporous, cross-linked pyrrolidone-based resin
  20. Short Note
  21. Lignin analysis with benchtop NMR spectroscopy
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