Perspectives of biomass based lignin to value added chemicals in biorefineries: challenges, extraction strategies and applications
Uplabdhi Tyagi, Anil Kumar Sarma
Abstract
Abstract Lignin transformation has significant potential to produce high‐quality platform chemicals and value‐added products. Extraction techniques and techniques for processing lignin to lignin‐derived dimers and trimers and other phenolic compounds have recently attracted the attention of the scientific community. Exploring the potential of the most abundant sources of bio‐aromatics enhances the profitability and efficiency of the biorefinery process and reduces dependence on conventional resources. Successful lignin transformation entails the development of steps to overcome the following challenges: (i) the pretreatment of biomass followed by the separation of lignin to reduce crystallinity, and the reduction of the complex chemistry of biomass to produce lignin with a high degree of purity, and (ii) advances in chemical analysis for precise in situ lignin characterization during depolymerization. To bring about technological advances in the bio‐based economy, the utilization of sustainable resources for the production of value‐added products is essential. The valorization of lignin via cost‐effective and carbon‐neutral techniques has provided remarkable opportunities, including opportunities for commercialization. The life cycle analysis of lignin valorization to manufacture value‐added products from surplus biomass is central if maximum use is to be made of agro‐residues for such purposes. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.