Depolymerization of steam-treated lignin for the production of green chemicals.

In this short communication, lignin produced by steam processing of agricultural (hemp) and forestry (softwood) was depolymerised via a base catalysis to produce a combination of monomers, dimers, trimers and residual char. The lignin broth produced directly after the base-catalysed steam treatment was treated under pressure (from 1300 to 1900 psi) at temperatures varying from 300 to 330 °C in a custom-made batch reactor. The lignin concentration in the aqueous base solution was 10 wt% whilst the NaOH concentration was 5 wt%. Identification of 26 compounds has been done: 17 compounds were common to the two feedstocks while the remaining 9 were specific to each feedstock used.