In this work Eucalyptus grandis and Dipteryx odorata were submitted to photodegradation by ultraviolet radiation. The effect of ultraviolet radiation irradiation on the color change and chemical composition of each wood flour were evaluated. The samples were submitted to a total of 500h of artificial weathering using condensation stages and ultraviolet radiation B irradiation cycles. The change...

The carcinogenicity and mutagenicity of chemicals may be modulated by other chemicals, including those prepared by organic synthesis. Considering the several drawbacks of synthetic compounds vis-a-vis the human organism, the lignin biomass component was examined for this purpose. The binding affinity of lignin samples prepared by chemical and biological modification of lignin products derived f...

Being the only sustainable source of organic carbon, biomass is playing an ever-increasingly important role in our energy landscape. The conversion of renewable lignocellulosic biomass into liquid fuels is particularly attractive but extremely challenging due to the inertness and complexity of lignocellulose. Here we describe the direct hydrodeoxygenation of raw woods into liquid alkanes with m...

Expression of Phanerochaete chrysosporium genes encoding ligninolytic enzymes was assessed in wood. Poly(A) RNA was extracted from colonized wood chips by magnetic capture, and specific transcripts were quantified by competitive reverse transcriptase PCR. mRNA levels varied substantially among lignin peroxidase genes, and transcript patterns were dramatically different from those in previous st...

Wood is a highly intractable food source, yet many insects successfully colonize and thrive in this challenging niche. Overcoming the lignin barrier of wood is a key challenge in nutrient acquisition, but full depolymerization of intact lignin polymers has only been conclusively demonstrated in fungi and is not known to occur by enzymes produced by insects or bacteria. Previous research validat...

Thermal characterization of kraft lignin (KL) prepared from mixed hardwoods was conducted to determine their thermal and thermo-oxidative stability, glass transition temperature (Tg), pyrolysis products composition, syringyl/guaiacyl ratio. Two milled wood lignins (MWLs) acacia (MWL-aca) (MWL-mhw), the same hardwood species employed in production KL, were also characterized for comparison with ...

The cleavage of lignin bonds in a wood matrix is an important step in the processes employed in both the biorefinery and pulp and paper industries. β-O-4 ether linkages are susceptible to both acidic and alkaline hydrolysis. The cleavage of α-ether linkages rapidly occurs under mildly acidic reaction conditions, resulting in lower molecular weight lignin fragments. Acidic reactions are typicall...

BACKGROUND Hot water hydrolysis process is commercially applied for treating wood chips prior to pulping or wood pellet production, while it produces hydrolysis liquor as a by-product. Since the hydrolysis liquor is dilute, the production of value-added materials from it would be challenging. RESULTS In this study, acidification was proposed as a viable method to extract (1) furfural and acet...

The impacts of white-rot fungi on altering wood chemistry have been studied mostly in vitro. However, in vivo approaches may enable better assessment of the nature of interactions between saprotrophic fungi and host tree in nature. Hence, decayed and sound wood samples were collected from a naturally infected tree (Carpinus betulus L.). Fruiting bodies of the white rot fungus Trametes versicolo...

The amount of wood residue is used as a measurement of the extent of wood liquefaction. Characterization of the residue from wood liquefaction provides a new approach to understand some fundamental aspects of the liquefaction reaction. Residues were characterized by wet chemical analyses, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (...