SusChEM: Continuous Flow Lignin Deconstruction in Supercritical Solvent Mixtures and Conversion to Renewable Chemicals

来自农业废物和非食用植物的木质纤维素生物质代表了用于生产生物基燃料、化学品和聚合物的丰富、廉价和可再生的碳源。为了实现真正的可持续发展，需要探索有利于使用绿色溶剂、非贵金属催化剂并提供最佳生物质利用的新转化工艺。该项目的研究目标是研究木质素的解构，木质素是一种未充分利用的生物聚合物，占木质纤维素生物质的30%，并将其转化为高附加值的生物基酚类前体，用于药物，化妆品，调味剂和环氧树脂的工业生产。该工艺结合了木质素在超临界溶剂中的解聚和所得碎片的催化升级为所需的生物基产品。该项目将探索新的工艺，将木质素转化为具有工业意义的高附加值化学品，木质素是目前作为低价值锅炉燃料燃烧的工业废物。 具体而言，解构和分馏的工业木质素在流动反应器中使用超临界溶剂混合物将进行研究，以了解所涉及的机制，并确定有利于高选择性的条件，从而有利于经济的转化过程和环境，减少浪费。高价值的结构单元，如对香豆酸和阿魏酸将被回收，而具有较低价值的单体和低聚物的馏分将通过纳米结构催化剂进一步转化为生物基酚类平台化学品。 该推广计划主要针对7-12年级的高中教师，其目标是在学生中产生追求STEM领域职业的兴奋和兴趣。

Lignocellulosic biomass from agricultural waste and non-edible plants represents an abundant, inexpensive, and renewable source of carbon for the production of bio-based fuels, chemicals, and polymers. To be truly sustainable, new conversion processes that favor the use of green solvents, non-precious metal catalysts, and offer optimal biomass utilization need to be explored. The research objective of this project is to investigate the deconstruction of lignin, an underutilized biopolymer which accounts for up to 30% of lignocellulosic biomass, and its conversion to high value-added bio-based phenolic precursors for the industrial production of drugs, cosmetics, flavoring agents, and epoxy resins. The process combines the depolymerization of lignin in supercritical solvents and the catalytic upgrading of the resulting fragments to desired bio-based products.The project will explore new processes to convert lignin, an industrial waste product that is currently burnt as low value boiler fuel, to high value-added chemicals of industrial significance. Specifically, the deconstruction and fractionation of industrial lignin in flow reactors using supercritical solvent mixtures will be studied in order to understand the involved mechanisms and identify conditions that favor high selectivity, thus benefiting the economics of the conversion process and the environment by reducing waste. High value building blocks such as p-coumaric acid and ferulic acid will be recovered while fractions with lower value monomers and oligomers will be further converted over nanostructured catalysts to bio-based phenolic platform chemicals. The outreach program primarily targets grades 7-12 high school teachers with the objective of generating excitement and interest in pursuing careers in STEM fields among their students.