Lignin is considered to be an under exploited biomass resource which is currently receiving great attention in the research community because of its generation in the pulp and paper industry and as a by-product of nonfood biofuels processes.  However, a major challenge is to develop selective and economical processes for depolymerization of the lignin biopolymer into fuel components and other valuable small molecules useful for industrial purposes.  In our investigation, lignin was introduced into an oxygen free 500 ml continuously stirred autoclave together with water and catalyst and finally pressurized with nitrogen. The temperature was set at 300<sup>0</sup>C in all experiments. Activated alumina catalyst support doped with 5 transition metals was introduced into the vessel separately at the beginning of each experiment. Minitab software was used to conduct a full factorial screening experimental set to evaluate the performance of each catalyst where dopant types and dopant concentration in the catalyst support were described as the primary factors. The products were fractionated into low molecular weight compounds, an oligomeric fraction, coke and a water phase. GC/MS was used to quantify and identify the liquid phase products. Solid residues were characterized using TGA.

Metal doped catalyst development for lignin liquefaction and optimization of the process variables using design of experiments

251st National Meeting (2016)

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