PREMIERE LIGNE

Winner of the 2024 call for projects.

While the application of lignin depolymerization can yield phenolic monomers at high severity and replace phenols and BTX aromatics (benzene, toluene, and xylenes) from fossil origin, partial depolymerization of lignin is far less energy intensive, limiting without excessive hydrogen consumption, and allows to produce polyphenols or phenolic oligomers.

These non-fossil pyrolysis products can be used to replace phenols in wood panel resins and binders to:

• Replace aromatic polyols in rigid polyurethane formulations.
• Replace bisphenol A in epoxy resins.

Other applications concern their use as adhesives and coatings, based on their water resistance, fire retardancy, and anti-oxidation properties.

Despite the high interest for this valorization pathway, there are still some difficult challenges to maximize yield in interesting products minimizing the process cost.

The project PREMIERE LIGNE aims to develop an alternative process of lignin conversion into oligomers and phenols via catalytic hydropyrolysis. The strategy will be based on a multi-disciplinary approach:

• Development of more detailed analysis of lignin and oligomers.
• Development of innovative methodological tools (based on molecular reconstruction and stochastic simulation) to get an in-depth understanding of chemical structures and reactivity and unique kinetic modelling.
• Screening of heterogeneous catalysts to improve the yield of the reaction selected from non-noble materials and available commercially.
• Develop innovative concept of reactors to manage in continuous catalytic hdyropyrolysis of lignins based on structured support like open cell foams.

The scope of the project is to stay at the reactivity and process scale; the properties of materials obtained after lignin conversion won’t be studied.
 

Project lifetime:
 

2024 - 2029

Scientific manager:
 

Pascal Fongarland (Université Claude-Bernard Lyon 1)