From Lignin to Valuable Aromatic Chemicals: Lignin Depolymerization and Monomer Separation via Centrifugal Partition Chromatography
Abstract
Lignin has long been recognized as a potential feedstock for aromatic molecules; however, most lignin depolymerization methods create a complex mixture of products. The present study describes an alkaline aerobic oxidation method that converts lignin extracted from poplar into a collection of oxygenated aromatics, including valuable commercial compounds such as vanillin and p-hydroxybenzoic acid. Centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) is shown to be an effective method to isolate the individual compounds from the complex product mixture. The liquid–liquid extraction method proceeds in two stages. The crude depolymerization mixture is first subjected to ascending-mode extraction with the Arizona solvent system L (pentane/ethyl acetate/methanol/water 2:3:2:3), enabling isolation of vanillin, syringic acid, and oligomers. The remaining components, syringaldehyde, vanillic acid, and p-hydroxybenzoic acid (pHBA), were resolved by using ascending-mode extraction with solvent mixture comprising dichloromethane/methanol/water (10:6:4) separation. These results showcase CPC as an effective technology that could provide scalable access to valuable chemicals from lignin and other biomass-derived feedstocks.
- Authors:
-
- Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1101 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
- Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1101 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States, Wisconsin Energy Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53726, United States
- Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Michigan State University, 603 Wilson Road, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, United States
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1827762
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1832851
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0018409
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- ACS Central Science
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: ACS Central Science Journal Volume: 7 Journal Issue: 11; Journal ID: ISSN 2374-7943
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Citation Formats
Alherech, Manar, Omolabake, Surajudeen, Holland, Christopher M., Klinger, Gracielou E., Hegg, Eric L., and Stahl, Shannon S. From Lignin to Valuable Aromatic Chemicals: Lignin Depolymerization and Monomer Separation via Centrifugal Partition Chromatography. United States: N. p., 2021.
Web. doi:10.1021/acscentsci.1c00729.
Alherech, Manar, Omolabake, Surajudeen, Holland, Christopher M., Klinger, Gracielou E., Hegg, Eric L., & Stahl, Shannon S. From Lignin to Valuable Aromatic Chemicals: Lignin Depolymerization and Monomer Separation via Centrifugal Partition Chromatography. United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.1c00729
Alherech, Manar, Omolabake, Surajudeen, Holland, Christopher M., Klinger, Gracielou E., Hegg, Eric L., and Stahl, Shannon S. Wed .
"From Lignin to Valuable Aromatic Chemicals: Lignin Depolymerization and Monomer Separation via Centrifugal Partition Chromatography". United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.1c00729.
@article{osti_1827762,
title = {From Lignin to Valuable Aromatic Chemicals: Lignin Depolymerization and Monomer Separation via Centrifugal Partition Chromatography},
author = {Alherech, Manar and Omolabake, Surajudeen and Holland, Christopher M. and Klinger, Gracielou E. and Hegg, Eric L. and Stahl, Shannon S.},
abstractNote = {Lignin has long been recognized as a potential feedstock for aromatic molecules; however, most lignin depolymerization methods create a complex mixture of products. The present study describes an alkaline aerobic oxidation method that converts lignin extracted from poplar into a collection of oxygenated aromatics, including valuable commercial compounds such as vanillin and p-hydroxybenzoic acid. Centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) is shown to be an effective method to isolate the individual compounds from the complex product mixture. The liquid–liquid extraction method proceeds in two stages. The crude depolymerization mixture is first subjected to ascending-mode extraction with the Arizona solvent system L (pentane/ethyl acetate/methanol/water 2:3:2:3), enabling isolation of vanillin, syringic acid, and oligomers. The remaining components, syringaldehyde, vanillic acid, and p-hydroxybenzoic acid (pHBA), were resolved by using ascending-mode extraction with solvent mixture comprising dichloromethane/methanol/water (10:6:4) separation. These results showcase CPC as an effective technology that could provide scalable access to valuable chemicals from lignin and other biomass-derived feedstocks.},
doi = {10.1021/acscentsci.1c00729},
journal = {ACS Central Science},
number = 11,
volume = 7,
place = {United States},
year = {2021},
month = {10}
}
https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.1c00729
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