Production of value-added products from hydrolysis lignin

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The proposed CRD project will support a research collaboration between Dr. Pedram Fatehi of Lakehead University and Dr. Zhirun Yuan of FPInnovations. Recently, FPInnvations developed a process to convert a chemithermomechanical pulping (CTMP) process to a CTMP-based biorefinery. In this process, monomeric sugars are produced from cellulose of woody materials that can be converted to buthanol. Another product of this process is unhydrolyzed biomass (called hydrolysis lignin, or H-lignin), which consists of 60-65% lignin and 35-40% polysaccharides. Currently, H-lignin has no industrial application. Although the incentive for producing monomeric sugars via developing this new CTMP-based biorefinery is high, the utilization of the H-lignin is a challenge of this newly developed CTMP-based biorefinery. To fully utilize woody materials and to make this new technology economically feasible, H-lignin should be further processed and converted to value-added products. The main objectives of this research collaboration are to produce cationic and anionic hydrolysis lignin via grafting and copolymerization and to investigate the potential applications of the modified lignins as flocculants for tailing ponds and wastewater systems. The team will extensively use various hardwood hydrolysis lignin samples produced at FPInnovations' pilot facilites in Pointe Claire, QC, as the raw materials of this research. In this research project, various alternative pathways are examined to produce flocculants from hydrolysis lignin that is generated as the product of the CTMP-based biorefinery process. FPInnovations will benefit from this research program via obtaining the detailed data and knowledge of the developed technologies. These technologies could be adapted by FPInnovations to any CTMP process across Canada in its effort to convert it to a biorefinery. The production of various value-added lignin products from hydrolysis lignin will facilitate the development of the CTMP-based biorefinery, which will increase the financial benefits of traditional CTMP processes in particular and help the overall economy of Canada.