Reducing the heterogeneity of technical lignin is essential to obtain predictable and high-performance polymeric materials that are suitable for high-value applications. Organic solvents with different polarities and solubilities can be used to fractionate lignin and reduce the complexity and diversity of its chemical structure. Among the various solvents and solvent mixtures, acetone-water mixtures offer an energy-efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly means of lignin fractionation. In the present study, temperature-induced acetone-water fractionation was investigated to refine the properties of a technical softwood Kraft lignin, i.e., LignoBoost™ lignin. Relatively mild operating conditions were tested, namely, temperatures of 70-110°C and autogenous pressure. A factorial experimental design was developed using the Design-Expert® software, and three factors (temperature, time, and acetone concentration) were investigated. It was found that temperature-induced fractionation could increase lignin homogeneity and maintain high lignin solubilization with a short processing time (<1 h). It was also possible to tune the properties of the soluble lignin fraction (yield and weight-average molecular weight) based on the factorial models developed. The techno-economic evaluation confirmed the commercial viability of this fractionation process.
This work was supported by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research, MISTRA (F2019/1822) within the framework of the research program STEPS – Sustainable Plastics and Transition Pathways at Lund University. Omar Abdelaziz acknowledges the Troëdsson Paper Engineering grant (P111639) supporting his research stay at the RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB. Marzouk Benali is grateful for financial support from the Program on Energy Research and Development (PERD-3A03-003) and the Forest Innovation Program of the Canadian Forest Service at Natural Resources Canada.