LIGNIN HYDROLYSIS

Polymers made from natural biomass are of interest because of growing environmental concerns and the depletion of petrochemical resources. Lignin, isolated from lignocellulosic biomass, is the second most common natural polymer after cellulose. Industrial lignin is produced as a by-product in the paper pulp production process, which is mainly used for energy production and is of lesser importance in materials production. High content, rich chemical functions, CO2. Neutrality, enhancing properties, antioxidant properties and ability to block ultraviolet radiation, and environmental friendliness make lignin an interesting substrate for materials and chemical developments.

Lignin is a renewable material composed of the same chemical building blocks as petroleum-based materials. This means that lignin opens up a huge number of business opportunities. Its main advantage is that it reduces the carbon footprint of the product produced. In some cases, lignin can even improve the product.

Lignin is already used as an adhesive in eco-friendly, low-carbon plywood, an attractive choice in today's increasingly green business environment. But lignin can also be used in industries where the idea of working with wood materials hasn't come up yet. Plastics, a huge market, is one example. More and more plastics manufacturers are testing how well lignin meets their specifications. It seems that lignin can sometimes improve plastics and can also be an inexpensive alternative to fossil materials. Another use for lignin is as a binder in asphalt. The resulting asphalt has a smaller carbon footprint, and reports show that it also has lower rolling resistance, resulting in less driving noise.

UPM BioPiva™.
Together with its partners, forest industry company UPM has developed a thoroughly tested portfolio of biobased lignin solutions, offering a cost-effective and tightly controlled range of environmentally friendly lignin products. For more information, visit the UPM web site . UPM has partnered with Domtar .

Lignin in plywood
Latvijas Finieris is a leading developer, producer and supplier of birch plywood. In creating Stora Enso, it developed the use of lignin instead of phenol to make plywood resins . As a result, the plywood has a reduced carbon footprint, while at the same time maintaining their technical characteristics. This is an excellent example of the successful development of renewable biological solutions.

Quality interior applications
Lignin has been used successfully in panels for high quality interior applications. The smaller carbon footprint and outstanding design seem to go well together. You can get more information on the Arpa website , as well as the Wageningen Research University website .

The best bioplastics
Lignin Industries (Ren Com) is a company that converts lignin into RENOL® , a lignin-based polymer that can replace fossil-based plastics. RENOL can be blended with most existing thermoplastics, and is currently targeting three applications: films; artificial soccer field fillers; and injection molding. The main advantage of RENOL-based films is that they are more biodegradable and do not form microplastics. Another reason is that every kilogram of fossil plastic replaced with RENOL reduces five to six kilograms of CO 2 emissions. For more information, visit the Lignin Industries website, lignin.se .

Low-carbon car interiors
Automotive interior parts and many other items can be made from a plastic called ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene). Total global production of ABS in 2018 was about 11 million tons . Prisma Renewable Composites has developed and licensed technology to produce ABS and other valuable lignin composites and polymers. According to Prisma, their replacement ABS plastic material costs less, has higher tensile strength, higher UV resistance and lower volatile organic compound levels than standard ABS resins. Prisma works with industry partners such as Yanfeng Global Automotive Interiors , a supplier of high-quality automotive interior solutions.

Bio Asphalt
More than 1 trillion metric tons of asphalt is produced each year. Asphalt typically consists of 95 percent mineral aggregates and 5 percent binder. One way to reduce the carbon footprint of asphalt is to use a renewable material as a binder. Lignin has been used for this purpose in several tests such as this one , this one and this one , and Stora Enso's Lineo™ lignin has already been used in several projects in Central Europe .

Transportation fuel
A very quick way to reduce CO 2 emissions from transportation is to produce fuels similar to those used today, but from renewable sources. RenFuel has invented a technology that turns lignin into lignin oil, LIGNOL®. Lignin oil can be converted into conventional diesel fuel and gasoline. More information here.

Renew lignin with enzymatic technology
MetGen combines synthetic biology with chemistry and technology to provide more efficient use of raw materials and increase the use of biobased materials. MetGen has advanced plans for several lignin-based products as well as offerings for bioprocessing and fiber solutions .

Other uses for lignin
The chemical industry offers many other possible and profitable uses for lignin. Some examples are chemical products such as adhesives, polymers, polyols, curing agents, coatings and emulsifiers.

Packaging in polyethylene bags of 12 kg or in the customer's packaging

Feed additives
Hydrolysis lignin are hydrophobic sorbents with high sorption capacity. Having a large developed surface area and different pore volume, they can effectively absorb both polar and nonpolar xenobiotics, which is the key to their efficiency and demand. The toxin absorption capacity of hydrolysis lignin is about 50% of that of activated carbon. In contrast to rye bran, which, although effectively absorbing mycotoxins, partially digested in the gastrointestinal tract, again releases absorbed xenobiotics into the intestinal lumen, is absorbed and enters the body of animals. At the same time, the enzyme systems of the gastrointestinal tract of birds and animals cannot hydrolyze hydrolysed lignin biostructures previously subjected to acid-alkali treatment, so mycotoxin-lignin complexes formed in the upper intestine are not subject to degradation in the intestine and are completely eliminated from the body.

Fertilizers
With the increased use of agrochemicals in the last two decades, it has become critical to find alternative chemicals that are less harmful to the environment and humanity. One such alternative is lignin. In recent years, research and development of lignin-based agrochemicals has gained popularity and demand, and their use has been popularized. Lignin can be converted into agrochemicals such as fertilizers, pesticides, soil improvers and plant growth regulators. This article presents various potential ways to reuse recovered lignin in agriculture. There is an ongoing need for research, development, improvement, and innovation in the ways they are used so that along with reducing reliance on traditionally available, harmful, and potentially toxic agrochemicals, a valuable resource is not lost. Continued research on lignin structure mapping, The development of bioengineering techniques to combine different lignin structures and collaboration among relevant sectors to encourage and stimulate lignin recovery and reuse in lignocellulosic wastes are key to addressing this problem. In this way, a major element of air, land and water pollution can be eliminated and an important resource can be recovered.

Lignin-based fertilizers
Lignin, with its aromatic structure rich in chemical groups, is the second most abundant organic substance in the world. The slow process of lignin decomposition and release of its nutrients makes it an ideal raw material for new fertilizers such as slow-release nitrogen fertilizers, phosphate fertilizers, compound fertilizers and chelate microfertilizers. By modifying it with various elements, it shows long-term stability, protection against leaching, low pollution, high fertilizer efficiency, low price.

Lignin-based plant growth regulators
Plant growth regulators are a class of plant hormones that regulate plant growth and development. It can affect the entire process of plant life, such as rooting, germination, flowering, seed setting, ripening, and shattering.

Pesticides
The use of lignin in pesticides primarily utilizes its derivative function as a dispersant and adhesive. These properties give it the additional ability to effectively dissolve and spread pesticides when applied to soil and plants (Hemmilä et al., 2013). Singh et al., 2020, showed in a study that lignin-based pesticides can effectively reduce soil leaching, soil contamination and groundwater contamination.

Other possibilities
Lignin is not only used to regulate pesticide and plant growth, but also in other areas of agriculture because of its polyhydroxyphenol network structure. When lignin was used for soil improvement, it also played a major role. After a series of lignin treatments, a tough, film-forming liquid mulch was produced that improves soil aggregates, warms, preserves soil moisture and protects seedlings. Its operation is simple and environmentally friendly.

Packaging in polyethylene bags of 12 kg or in the customer's packaging

Characteristics of the substance Lignin Hydrolysis
Enterosorbent of plant origin. Dark brown amorphous powder, odorless and tasteless. Practically insoluble in water.

Pharmacology
Pharmacological action - antioxidant, hypolipidemic, sorption, disintoxication, antidiarrheal, complex-forming. Adsorbs in the gastrointestinal tract of microorganisms, products of their life, exogenous and endogenous toxins, allergens, xenobiotics, heavy metals, radioactive isotopes, ammonia, divalent cations. Compensates for the lack of natural dietary fiber in the human diet, has a positive effect on the microflora of the large intestine and nonspecific immunity. Is excreted through the intestine unchanged.

Application of the substance Lignin hydrolysis
Acute poisoning by drugs, alcohol, salts of heavy metals, alkaloids, etc,
- Dysentery, dysbacteriosis, dyspepsia, flatulence, diarrhea, food toxicoinfections, salmonellosis,
- Intoxication of various origins, including those accompanying purulent inflammatory diseases,
- Liver and kidney failure,
- lipid metabolism disorders (atherosclerosis, obesity),
- Food and drug allergies.

An extended article on lignin in medicine can be read at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5486042/

Packaging in polyethylene bags of 30 kg or in the customer's packaging

Lignin sorbent produced by treatment of hydrolysis lignin is manufactured in the form of homogeneous hydrophobic powder of dark brown color from large-tonnage hydrolysis waste - hydrolysis lignin.

Area of application
Used for cleaning surfaces of water reservoirs, oil and drilling pits, sludge pits, as well as for oil-contaminated or oil-filled land remediation and utilization of waste oil products and industrial oils from oil or oil products.
Oil sorbent is also intended for application at drilling works, oil and gas producing and refining enterprises in order to prevent pollution of the natural environment with oil and oil products, as well as while oil transportation by pipeline, railway and motor transport.

Physical and chemical characteristics of the oil sorbent:
Grain size distribution of the powder, 0.2 - 0.8 mm.
Bulk density 200 - 350 kg/m3
Mass fraction of water, not more than 20%.
Oil absorption capacity, 100 - 500 % (at 18 °С)
Floatability in oil-saturated state, at least 5 days

Characteristics of oil sorbent
Sorbent is a homogeneous powder with high affinity to oil and oil products (1-5 g/g) and oil-saturated state holds on the water surface for more than 5 days. Converts liquid oil and petroleum products in the solid high-caloric fuel.
Sorbent is a non-toxic material (Hazard Class 3).
Sorbent does not disturb the ecological equilibrium in ecosystems, is harmless for soils, is their structure-forming agent.

Technical advantages
Unlike other natural sorbents, such as those based on moss and peat, it does not require additional costs for extraction and transportation, and therefore is very cheap; it does not float when applied to an oil slick, it does not sink together with the oil. It transforms liquid oil and oil products into solid high-calorific fuel.

Advantages of the sorbent
Easy disposal. Both components (wood and oil products) burn perfectly. Sorbent is a high-caloric fuel with quite a big calorific value comparable to coal.

Packaging in cartons of 10 kg or big bags of 1000 kg.

Packaging
Lignin fuel briquettes are sold packed in 10 kg cardboard boxes or in bulk in 1000 kg big-bags. Such packaging greatly simplifies the procedure of their use, storage and long period of storage. Such fuel will take up to 30% less space than conventional firewood. Briquettes can be stored for a long time and do not depend on the level of humidity

Increased calorific value, which is more than 5000 Kcal / kg. To date, such fuel is a worthy substitute for coal, which is constantly rising in price. The use of lignin as a biofuel greatly increases the profitability of many industries, metallurgical and chemical plants.

Efficiency
If you use briquetted lignin instead of regular firewood, it will spend a lot less fuel to heat your home

Burning process
Lignin fuel briquettes exhibit a uniform, prolonged combustion process. No sparks are emitted during this process, there is no smoking. They burn at the same volume for about 35% longer than wood briquettes. For customers this means that to put a new batch of briquettes in a fireplace, stove or boiler need three times less often

Ash content
Briquetted lignin combustion has an ash content of up to 8%, while charcoal combustion has an ash content of 40%. The ash produced by burning lignin contains many useful chemical elements. For example, easily hydrolyzable nitrogen is about 80 mg/kg, mobile phosphorus up to 3000 mg/kg and exchangeable potassium up to 534 mg/kg. Such ash is not toxic for microorganisms, so it can be used as a complex fertilizer, which contains all the minerals and trace elements necessary for plants

Safe and environmentally friendly
No additives, plasticizers or binders are used in the production of briquetted lignin. Besides, the carbon dioxide emissions from burning briquettes are about 50 times less than from burning coal.