Lignin

Schematic illustration of different strategies to process lignocellulose. (a) Two industrial routes of processing woodmeal, namely, the pulp industry or the lignin oil industry. (b) Mechanisms of hydrogen-atom transfer to break the ?-O-4 motif, which is abundant in native lignin. (c) Overview of our strategy to first depolymerize native lignin and then repolymerize the resulting oligomers using dynamic covalent cross-linkers. Credit: ACS Central Science (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.2c01257
Converting lignin into sustainable plastics that can be readily recycled through chemical means
Containers are of poplar biomass (left), the extracted lignin oil, and the resulting sustainable aviation fuel.
Enabling 100% sustainable aviation fuel
Woody lignin, seen here in purified form, holds significant promise as a renewable biofuel, if it can be efficiently broken down into useful form. (Photo by Andrea Starr | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
A lignin digesting enzyme offers tremendous potential for renewable energy and materials
It is possible to efficiently turn industrially processed lignin into high-performance plastics
A technology which could enable the transition from lithium-ion to sodium-ion batteries
A new generation of low-cost and high-energy supercapacitors to power electric vehicles
Hydrogen production from biomass
Moving from petroleum to wood in the chemical industry would lead to a reduction in CO2 emissions
Producing plastic from plants with an engineered microbe
A new renewable 3D printing feedstock – lignin
Converting plant waste into sustainable and high-value products such as nylon, plastics, chemicals, and fuels
A fuel cell that uses lignin
Turning waste lignin into carbon fiber for cars and planes
Waste material from the paper and pulp industry soon could be made into anything from tennis rackets to cars
New discovery may ultimately make biofuels competitive with petroleum