Monday, May 4, 2009
11-15

Development of value added products from hydrolyzed Lignin

Sudhagar Mani, Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of Georgia, Driftmier Engineering Center, Athens, GA 30602, Venkatesh Balan, Department of Chemical Engineering and Material Science, Michigan State University, 2527 Engineering building, East Lansing, MI 48824, and Bruce E. Dale, Biomass Conversion Research Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Michigan State University, 2527 Engineering building, E. Lansing, MI 48824.

Biochemical conversion of lignocellulosic biomass produces ethanol as a main product and hydrolysed lignin as a major byproduct. A typical corn stover based biorefinery (2000 tons/day) can produce as much as 400 tons/day of lignin and ash residues. Lignin is a complex, cross-linked phenyl propanoid compounds that mainly fills space in the plant cell wall and act as a defense against invading microbes. Although direct combustion of hydrolyzed lignin is normally proposed, several high value products such as binders, resins, polymer composites, phenols, vanillin can be produced from lignin. Recently, there has been significant interest in using lignin as commercial pellet binders and even polymer composites. This paper investigates the binding properties of hydrolyzed lignin to produce high quality biomass (switchgrass) pellets and optimize the amount of lignin required to produce high density and durable biomass pellets. The compaction behavior of hydrolyzed lignin is also studied using uniaxial compression testing method at various preheating temperatures and applied pressures. This paper also reviews the development of other value added low cost bio-products from lignin.

 Keywords: hydrolyzed lignin, pellet binder, resins & lignin pellets


See more of Poster Session 2/Reception
See more of The 31st Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals (May 3-6, 2009)