Utilisation de l'hydrosulfite de sodium pour la conversion de la lignine issue de bioraffineries

自COP21以来，包括加拿大在内的许多工业化国家都对减少温室气体排放做出了强有力的承诺。为了达到这个目的，有很多选择，包括提高建筑物的效率，以及完全放弃作为能源的煤炭。然而，运输燃料仍然是该国温室气体的主要生产者之一，为了解决这一问题，市场上实际上有较少的选择。当然，电动汽车的日益普及对于减少交通运输中的温室气体排放是一个净增值。然而，在一个像加拿大这么大的国家，加上电池自主性的实际限制，再加上电力还没有（未来10年也不会）应用于重型运输和航空，对先进的可再生运输燃料仍然有重要的必要性。在这一点上，第二代生物质的利用受到两个重大的技术和经济挑战的限制。一个是纤维素的水解，这在经济上仍然具有挑战性，无论是使用酶或化学方法进行糖化。除了纤维素，第二代生物燃料业务的第二大挑战是将木质素转化为增值产品，这在20年前是一个问题，今天仍然是一个主要挑战。木质素是一种难降解的芳香族大分子，可以在木质纤维素生物质中发现，浓度从15-35%不等，具有很高的生产化学原料的潜力。在这项工作中，将利用氢亚硫酸钠，一种以其在纸浆和纸张漂白过程中的应用而闻名的化合物，以生产有价值的化学产品。增加从这种过程中产生的单体的数量，特别是如果它使用不那么恶劣的条件，将有利于生物精炼厂，目前估计木质素是低质量的燃料。

Since COP21, many industrialized countries have made strong commitments toward reducing their GHG emissions including Canada. Many option are available to this purpose including improving the efficiency of buildings as well as completely discarding coal as an energy source. However, transportation fuels are still one of the major producers of GHG in the country and to solve this situation, lesser options are actually available on the market. Of course, the increasing availability of electric cars is a net plus value for the reduction of GHG in transportation. However, in a country as large as Canada and with the actual limitation related to battery autonomy combined to the fact that electricity does not yet (nor for the next 10 years) apply to heavy transportation and aviation, there is still an important necessity for advanced renewable transportation fuels. At this point, the utilization of second generation biomass is constraint by two significant technological and economical challenges. One is the hydrolysis of cellulose, which is still economically challenging either when using enzymatic or chemical approaches for saccharification. In addition to cellulose, the second biggest challenge with the second-generation biofuel business is the conversion of lignin to added value products which was a problem 20 years ago and is still a major challenge today. Lignin is a refractory aromatic-based macromolecule which can be found in lignocellulosic biomass at concentrations varying from 15-35% with a high potential for the production of chemical feedstock. In this work, the utilization of sodium hydrosulfite, a compound known for its utilization in pulp and paper bleaching processes, will be used in order to produce valuable chemical products. Increasing the amount of monomers produced from such process, especially if it uses less severe conditions, will be beneficial for biorefineries which currently under estimates lignin as a low quality fuel.