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Lignin has long been considered as an abundant and renewable feedstock to produce biofuels and value-added products. However, its commercialization has been reduced mainly to heat and power generation after its recovery from two of the most used delignification technologies in paper industry, the Kraft and sulfite processes. This chapter reviews the fundamentals and advances in lignin extraction methods, its processing to produce valuable fuels, carbon fiber, plastics, copolymers, and platform chemicals. Since the better understanding of the structure and interactions of lignin in biomass allows efficient downstream processing, the description of its structural compounds and its characterization methods, including nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, are also reviewed. Topics such as the biorefinery lignin valorization, techno-economic analysis, and life cycle assessment are reviewed to evidence the hotspots. This chapter ends with the final opinions on the advances and work-to-do on lignin valorization to improve its manufacturing and competition against petroleum-derived applications. |
