Catalytic system turns biomass waste to renewable chemical stock

Researchers at Umeå University in Sweden, in collaboration with scientists from Finland, Vietnam, India, and Italy, have developed a catalytic system to convert lignin structures into highly valuable chemicals. This innovative technology offers promising solutions to pressing environmental and energy challenges.

As fossil fuel reserves deplete and the challenges of climate change intensify, renewable and sustainable resources are emerging as a key solution. Among these, biofuels and commodity chemicals derived from biomass, particularly lignin, have gained increasing attention.

Lignin constitutes about 30% of plant dry mass, with 50–70 million metric tons released annually, mainly as a byproduct in the paper and pulp industry. Despite its abundance, lignin’s complex structure makes it difficult to convert into valuable products, limiting its potential as a sustainable resource.

To tackle this challenge, researchers at Umeå University, Sweden, alongside scientists from Finland, Vietnam, India, and Italy, have designed a catalytic system that efficiently breaks down structures in lignin. Their results are presented in Van Minh Dinh’s doctoral thesis from the Department of Chemistry, Umeå University, Sweden.

“We first evaluate the performance of the catalytic system using lignin-model compounds,” says Dinh. “They are small molecules that closely resemble lignin’s structure, making them an ideal model for our research,” he explains.

Under optimal conditions, the catalytic system selectively cleaves chemical bonds in lignin models, producing a variety of value-added products, such as hydrocarbons for jet fuel additives or oxygenates for industrial chemicals.

“An exciting aspect of our research is the catalyst’s excellent reusability,” Dinh adds. “It remains structurally stable across a broad range of test conditions, while maintaining high activity over multiple cycles.”

The research team is now focused on scaling up the catalytic system using lignin samples from around Sweden. The research has the potential to drive further innovation in biomass conversion strategies and contribute to replacing fossil fuels with renewable resources.