Reductive catalytic fractionation of softwood for green chemical and fuel production

The overall goal with this project is to perform research that can aid the development of bio-refineries that produces chemicals and fuels using bio-mass residues.

Reductive catalytic fractionation (RCF) is an important future technique that can be used on biomass and valorize it to renewable chemicals and fuels.

It consist of three simultaneous steps: (i) lignin extraction from the biomass, (ii) catalytic depolymerization and (iii) reductive stabilization of the lignin species. Recently, large progress have been made for hardwood (leaf trees). However, when using softwood (e.g. spruces and pines) significantly less usable products are produced.

This is due to that deliginification and depolymerization is less efficient for softwood, because of different chemical structure of the lignin.

In Sweden the majority of felled tree species are soft wood (89%) and this is also the case in many other countries as well.

The objective of the current project is therefore to develop the catalytic process for RCF using residual soft wood, for which there, according to my knowledge, is no studies available.

In order to reach our goals we will combine many techniques in an interdisciplinary way, where catalyst synthesis, detailed characterization of the catalyst, high pressure RCF experiments and detailed analysis of the formed products will be conducted.

The results from the project will be communicated broadly: to the research community, companies, students and to society in general.