Lignin is an aromatic biopolymer involved in providing structural support to plant cell walls. Compared to the other cell wall polymers, i.e., cellulose and hemicelluloses, lignin has been considered a hindrance in cellulosic bioethanol production due to the complexity involved in its separation from other polymers of various biomass feedstocks. Nevertheless, lignin is a potential source of val...

Soda lignin does not have thermal flowing characteristics and it is impossible for it to be further thermally molded. To achieve the fusibility of soda lignin for fiber preparation by melt-spinning, an effective method for soda lignin modification was conducted by cooking it with polyethylene glycol (PEG) 400 at various ratios. The higher the ratio of PEG that was used, the more PEG molecular c...

BACKGROUND In the bioconversion of lignocellulosic substrates, the adsorption behavior of cellulase onto lignin has a negative effect on enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose, decreasing glucose production during enzymatic hydrolysis, thus decreasing the yield of fermentation and the production of useful products. Understanding the interaction between lignin and cellulase is necessary to optimize t...

The production of lignocellulosic-derived biofuels is a highly promising source of alternative energy, but it has been constrained by the lack of a microbial platform capable to efficiently degrade this recalcitrant material and cope with by-products that can be toxic to cells. Species that naturally grow in environments where carbon is mainly available as lignin are promising for finding new w...

Lignin is an integral part of the plant cell wall, which provides rigidity to plants, also contributes to the recalcitrance of the lignocellulosic biomass to biochemical and biological deconstruction. Lignin is a promising renewable feedstock for aromatic chemicals; however, an efficient and economic lignin depolymerization method needs to be developed to enable the conversion. In this study, w...

BACKGROUND Flowthrough pretreatment of biomass is a critical step in lignin valorization via conversion of lignin derivatives to high-value products, a function vital to the economic efficiency of biorefinery plants. Comprehensive understanding of lignin behaviors and solubilization chemistry in aqueous pretreatment such as water-only and dilute acid flowthrough pretreatment is of fundamental i...

The recently developed protocol for isolating enzymatic mild acidolysis lignins (EMAL) coupled with the novel combination of derivatization followed by reductive cleavage (DFRC) and quantitative (31)P NMR spectroscopy were used to better understand the lignin isolation process from wood. The EMAL protocol is shown to offer access at lignin samples that are more representative of the overall lig...

Presently lignin is used as fuel but recent interests in biomaterials encourage the use of this polymer as a renewable feedstock in manufacturing. The present study was undertaken to explore the potential applicability of microwaves to isolate lignin from agricultural residues. A central composite design (CCD) was used to optimize the processing conditions for the microwave (MW)-assisted extrac...

A mild acidic dioxane extraction method was employed to isolate lignin from hardwood bleached chemimechanical pulp (BCMP). The isolated lignin was then purified and undergone elemental analysis. To study the photodegradation behavior, the lignin samples were impregnated onto the Whatman filter papers and irradiated with UV light for various periods. The photolyzed lignin was then recovered and ...

The fate of most lignin linkages, other than the β-O-4, under selective oxidation conditions is largely unknown. In this work we use advanced β-5 lignin model compounds to identify the fate of phenylcoumaran units in a softwood lignin during oxidation with DDQ. By using model compounds combined with detailed characterisation of the oxidised lignin polymer using HSQC and HMBC NMR we show that ph...