posted on 2015-11-25, 00:00authored byZhenping Cai, Yingwen Li, Hongyan He, Qiang Zeng, Jinxing Long, Lefu Wang, Xuehui Li
A novel
and efficient water/oil emulsion reactor for organosolv
lignin depolymerization is presented using an ionic liquid catalyst
based on the self-surfactivity of lignin. The physical–chemical
properties of the emulsion reactor and lignin were intensively studied
using optical photo, dynamic light scattering, surface tension measurement,
and hydrophile–lipophile balance value determination. The results
show that the emulsion reactor demonstrates a more significant process
intensification effect on lignin depolymerization, with more than
29.60 mg g–1 desired phenolic compounds obtained,
which is about 3.3 times higher than that from a reactor without emulsification.
Another advantage of this water/oil emulsion reactor is that both
the organic solvent (n-butanol) and the ionic liquid
catalyst can be recycled easily, as the depletion of lignin surfactant
at the end of depolymerization can result in the phase partition and
the enrichment of final products in the oil phase automatically.