Atmospheric reductive catalytic fractionation of lignocellulose integrated with one-pot catalytic conversion of carbohydrate yielding valuable lignin monomers and platform chemicals from corn straw

Developing a cost-effective and environmentally friendly process for the production of valuable chemicals from abundant herbal biomass receives great attentions in recent years.Herein,taking advantage of the“lignin first”strategy,corn straw is converted to valuable chemicals including lignin monomers,furfural and 5-methoxymethylfurfural via a two steps process.The key of this research lies in the development of a green and low-cost catalytic process utilizing magnetic Raney Ni catalyst and high boiling point ethylene glycol.The utilization of neat ethylene glycol as the sole slovent under atmospheric conditions obviates the need for additional additives,thereby facilitating the entire process to be conducted in glass flasks and rendering it highly convenient for scaling up.In the initial step,depolymerization of corn straw lignin resulted in a monomer yield of 18.1 wt%.Subsequently,in a dimethyl carbonate system,the carbohydrate component underwent complete conversion in a one-pot process,yielding furfural and 5-methoxymethylfurfural as the primary products with an impressive yield of 47.7%.

A sustainable process to 100%bio-based nylons integrated chemical and biological conversion of lignocellulose

Considerable progress has been made in recent years to the development of sustainable polymers from bio-based feedstocks.In this study,100%bio-based nylons were prepared via an integrated chemical and biological process from lignocellulose.These novel nylons were obtained by the melt polymerization of 3-propyladipic acid derived from lignin and 1,5-pentenediamine/1,4-butanediamine derived from carbohydrate sugar.Central to the concept is a three-step noble metal free catalytic chemical funnelling sequence(Raney Ni mediated reductive catalytic fractionation-reductive funnelling-oxidative funnelling),which allowed for obtaining a single component 3-propyladipic acid from lignin with high efficiency.The structural and thermodynamic properties of the obtained nylons have been systematically investigated,and thus obtained transparent bio-based nylons exhibited higher Mw(>32,000)and excellent thermal stability(Td5%>265℃).Considering their moderate Tg and good melt strength,these transparent bio-based nylons could serve as promising functional additives or temperature-responsive materials.