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eucalyptus - mescaline

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Mr_Smith:
Lignin?! As in the stuff that holds wood together?  I've heard of the pyrolysis of lignin, but this fascinates me. Is there any way to depolymerize it and separate the phenol groups?

Osmium:
Yes, lignin can be decomposed into the benzaldehydes (vanillin and syringaldehyde) by oxidative decomposition with nitrobenzene and NaOH. usually this temp is done in aq. solution at elevated temps (~170°C), that means under high pressure. With the right solvent selection it might be able to do it at standard pressure. That's what I was talking about up there. Nitrobenzene smells nice (almonds) but is yuck, very poisonous. But I'm pretty sure nitrotoluene can be used too. If there is sufficient interest you might be able to talk me into digging out some refs for this.
The big problem is finding the best lignin for this task. It is dirt cheap as a precursor when you know the right industrial sources, and EU sponsors lignin research (renewable raw materials etc) with BIG bucks right now, but since vanillin is readily available you need a lignin which consists mainly of syringaldehyde. Best lignins I have seen yet consisted of only 50-60% syringyl units which is very difficult to separate from the rest (vanillin) by other means than chromatography. There migt be better lignins out there, like this eucalyptus lignin.
I think I posted more about all this on the old boards, maybe have a look there.

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