1.2 Ultrapure Lignins Recovered from Paper-Mill Black Liquors as Renewable Biopolymers
(Room 243-245)
09 Apr 18
2:30 PM
-
3:00 PM
Tracks:
Session 1: Powder Coatings, Session 1: Science Today - Coatings Tomorrow
This research focuses on translating the invention of an environmentally friendly extraction process for producing ultrapure lignins to fill the need in society for inexpensive, renewable biopolymers. Lignin is one of the world's most abundant biopolymers (second only to cellulose), but is unique because of its aromatic nature, giving it special properties. With the invention of the Aqueous Lignin Purification with Hot Acids (ALPHA) process, lignins with very low levels of impurities and of controlled molecular weight (i.e., "ultra pure") can now be recovered from biomass by-product streams, such as the black liquor from paper mills. These ultrapure lignins have the potential to replace petroleum-derived, nonrenewable polymers in a wide variety of applications, including foams, coatings, and carbon fibers. Today, the so-called Kraft lignins available on the market have over 100 times the metals content of ultrapure lignins (i.e., 10,000 vs 100 ppm), with little or no control of molecular weight. In this project, ALPHA will be integrated with the Sequential Liquid-Lignin Recovery and Purification (SLRP) process to convert black liquor to Kraft lignin and then to ultrapure lignin. Both processes use renewable aqueous acetic acid (SLRP as an acidification reagent and ALPHA as an extractive solvent) and both are continuous processes, so overall costs will be minimized compared to the current batch technologies