How to Get More Out of Wood Waste - Breaking Down Lignin to Get Useful Aromatic Compounds

Lignin makes up almost a third of our planet's organic carbon and is a large waste component in paper processing. Research efforts have been focused on breaking this difficult material down and use its components for other useful purposes. The research team of Alireza Rahimi, Arne Ulbrich, Joshua J. Coon, and Shannon Stahl at UW-Madison have figured out a way to break down lignin.

  Lignin and cellulose are responsible for the structural strength of plant cell walls (left image)

A lot of lignin is produced from paper processing (right image)

How does this relate to what we’ve learned in general chemistry?

Lignin makes up almost a third of our planet’s organic carbon and is a large waste component in paper processing. Research efforts have been focused on breaking this difficult material down and use its components for other useful purposes. The research team of Alireza Rahimi, Arne Ulbrich, Joshua J. Coon & Shannon S. Stahl at UW-Madison have figured out a way to break down lignin. One of the first steps is the chemical oxidation of a secondary alcohol group into a ketone, which is a key step in being able to break it down into smaller and potentially useful aromatic molecules.

Lignin (from popular or aspen) 

Article: 

Formic-acid-induced depolymerization of oxidized lignin to aromatics; Alireza Rahimi, Arne Ulbrich, Joshua J. Coon & Shannon S. Stahl (researchers at UW-Madison Depts. Of Chemistry and Biochemistry); Nature 515, 249–252 (13 November 2014) doi:10.1038/nature13867