Abstract
Solvolysis approach is an efficient pathway to covert solid biomass into different end products since it can provide a mild environment and a single-phase condition. A comparative study on various alcohols-assisted liquefaction of lignin has been carried out using sulfuric acid as catalyst under microwave condition. Methanol and ethanol showed a higher conversion rate compared to other alcohols. Both liquefied products and residues have been investigated using gel permeation chromatography–high-performance liquid chromatography (GPC–HPLC), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Thermogravimetric (TG) analysis. The results showed that methanol and ethanol as solvents achieved a higher conversion rate, meantime, the molecular weight of liquefied products was dramatically lower than those of other alcohols. The FT-IR indicated that there were obvious differences in the contents of carbonyl, methyl and hydroxyl group in the liquefied products with various alcohols as solvents. The solid residue exhibited a big difference in microstructure morphology after depolymerization, in addition, the resulted solid residue from methanol solvents showed a higher thermal stability and char yield, which can be used as a fire retardant in composite materials.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 38-44 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification |
Volume | 126 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (project 21466022 ) and the Key project (20161BBF60057) and (GCXZ2014-124) of Jiangxi Provincial Department of Science and Technology of China for financial support.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017
Keywords
- Alcohols
- Depolymerization
- Lignin
- Liquefied products
- Solid residue