In the perspective of the transition from the classical-oil-based economy to a more sustainable one deriving from renewable resources, the exploitation of lignin potential has to be taken into account. Catalytic approaches to exploit lignin can drive to the isolation of a plethora of high added value products, such as vanillin, glycerol and oils which can find applications in various fields such as the one of plastics and the one of fibres. Unfortunately, the most important limitation lignin valorisation suffers deals with its intrinsic heterogeneity; this fact is the result of the uncontrolled wood depolymerization processes occurring during the lignin isolation processes. In this paper we discuss the results of our recent studies in which the coupling of the action of a fractionation process with the chemo-enzymatic valorisation of the resulting fractions is taken into account. In this study a holistic approach to laccase valorisation of lignins is considered with the contemporary selective depolymerization of kraft and organosolv lignins to monomeric compounds with added value and oxidatively polymerized fractions with higher molecular weight distribution. These results were achieved by the characterisation of oxidatively functionalised lignins and lignin fractions by use of spectroscopic (31P NMR) and chromatographic (GPC) techniques. Furthermore, the study of the oxidative valorisation of lignin fractions allowed to shed light on the fine mechanism of laccase mediated oxidation processes.

Not only monomeric products: A holistic approach to lignin valorisation by enzymatic oxidative treatment

ACS Spring 2022

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