Lignin is a natural substance in biomass, but it is unwanted in processes like production of paper or ethanol. In those processes, lignin is considered as waste and is used as fuel in heat and power plants. At the University of Boras, a team of researchers investigate methods to extract and refine lignin for better purposes than burning it.
While the commercial lignocellulose to ethanol plants use the lignin after pretreatment as biomass feedstock to heat and power plants, in the Horizon 2020 project AGROinLOG, lignin will instead be transformed into bio-oil based products.
The researcher Swarnima Agnihotri has spent a year at the University of Boras refining the methods to extract the lignin from the lignin-rich wheat straw. She explained:
“If biofuels are to become a reality, we need to realize the industrial potential of lignin and get more value from it,” she said. “Seeing the complexity and richness of its functional groups, there are various potential applications of lignin by converting it in variety of value-added products like high-performance carbon fibre, bio-oil and vanillin, to name a few.”
The project aims at utilizing an agricultural residue, wheat straw, which is available in surplus in Sweden, and also in other European countries.
“Wheat straw lignin valorization will add value to the whole process, and in turn provide benefit to industry, as well as further insight in creating value from lignin, which has been considered a waste until now,” she said
Integration of lignocellulose-based feedstock in ethanol plants is not new. There are a number of techniques already producing ethanol from lignocelluloses at commercial scale.
Lignin is a natural substance in biomass, but it is unwanted in processes like production of paper or ethanol. In those processes, lignin is considered as waste and is used as fuel in heat and power plants. At the University of Boras, a team of researchers investigate methods to extract and refine lignin for better purposes than burning it.
While the commercial lignocellulose to ethanol plants use the lignin after pretreatment as biomass feedstock to heat and power plants, in the Horizon 2020 project AGROinLOG, lignin will instead be transformed into bio-oil based products.
The researcher Swarnima Agnihotri has spent a year at the University of Boras refining the methods to extract the lignin from the lignin-rich wheat straw. She explained:
“If biofuels are to become a reality, we need to realize the industrial potential of lignin and get more value from it,” she said. “Seeing the complexity and richness of its functional groups, there are various potential applications of lignin by converting it in variety of value-added products like high-performance carbon fibre, bio-oil and vanillin, to name a few.”
The project aims at utilizing an agricultural residue, wheat straw, which is available in surplus in Sweden, and also in other European countries.
“Wheat straw lignin valorization will add value to the whole process, and in turn provide benefit to industry, as well as further insight in creating value from lignin, which has been considered a waste until now,” she said
Integration of lignocellulose-based feedstock in ethanol plants is not new. There are a number of techniques already producing ethanol from lignocelluloses at commercial scale.
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