The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for treating plant based raw material with an enzymatic hydrolysis, in which the plant based raw material (1) is treated to form lignocellulosic material (3a,3b) and the lignocellulosic material (3a,3b) or its fraction (10) is conducted into the enzymatic hydrolysis (4), wherein the method comprises at least one treatment stage (2a,2b,2c) in which the plant based raw material (1) is treated so that the lignocellulosic material (3a,3b) contains over 80% fine solid particles which are fiber-like or indefinable particles smaller than 0.2 mm, defined by an optical measurement device, the lignocellulosic material (3a,3b) or at least one fraction (10) of the lignocellulosic material is supplied into the enzymatic hydrolysis (4) for forming a lignin based material (5), and at least one solid-liquid separation stage (6) after the enzymatic hydrolysis (4) in which a lignin fraction (7) and a soluble carbohydrate containing fraction (8) are separated. Further, the invention relates to the soluble carbohydrate containing fraction, the lignin fraction, the lignin based material, the liquid fraction and the solid fraction, and their uses.

The disclosure relates to adhesive compositions, including non-crosslinked resins and crosslinked/cured adhesives joining substrates, as well as related methods for making the compositions and articles. Compared to a conventional phenol (P) and formaldehyde (F) resin, the disclosed methods and compositions use lignin (L) and higher aldehydes (A) as corresponding replacements to provide an analog to a conventional PF resin with biobased reactants. Due to the differing reactivity of the LA components compared to the PF components, the initial condensation reaction between ortho-reactive sites in the lignin and the aldehyde is controlled to prevent gelation of the aqueous reaction mixture while reacting substantially all of the LA reactants to provide a non-crosslinked resin reaction product. The resin reaction product can then be cured at high temperature/high pressure conditions to provide a crosslinked adhesive, for example joining two substrates.

Lignocellulosic biomass can be fractionated for the purpose of increasing cellulose purity in the pulp, increasing native lignin content of the isolated lignin, and improving cellulose hydrolysis, by performing the steps of: (a) extracting the biomass with an extracting liquid comprising at least 20 wt % of a first organic solvent at a temperature below 100° C.; (b) treating the extracted biomass with a treatment liquid comprising a second organic solvent selected from lower alcohols, ethers and ketones, optionally water and optionally an acid, at a temperature between 120° C. and 280° C., and, optionally: (c) subjecting a cellulose-enriched product stream resulting from step (b) to enzymatic hydrolysis. The first and second organic solvent may be different or the same; in particular they comprise ethanol or acetone.

A lignin dispersion composition comprising spherical lignin particles dispersed in an aqueous medium, wherein the spherical lignin particles have a size exclusively within a range of 100 nm to 5 microns. Also described herein is a method of producing the lignin dispersion, by: (i) dissolving lignin in an organic solvent substantially devoid of water yet miscible with water to result in a solution of the lignin in the organic solvent; and (ii) producing the lignin dispersion by dialyzing the solution of the lignin with water until substantially all of the organic solvent is replaced with water with simultaneous formation of spherical lignin particles dispersed in the water. Also described herein is a method for stabilizing an emulsion by intimately mixing the emulsion with the lignin dispersion. Also described herein is a hierarchical assembly of porous microparticles produced by mixing the lignin dispersion with an emulsion and an amphiphilic block copolymer.

A method for producing a modified lignin, including reacting one or more kind of a second generation ethanol fermentation residue and a second generation ethanol saccharification residue, with a phenol compound, a modified lignin having a ratio ((2H+G)/S) of a total of twice of a relative existence ratio H (%) of an H-type skeleton and a relative existence ratio G (%) of a G-type skeleton with respect to a relative existence ratio S (%) of an S-type skeleton, obtained from integrated values measured by .sup.31P-NMR, of 2.5 or more, and an existence ratio of an aliphatic hydroxy group obtained by the same method of less than 20%, and a modified lignin-containing resin composition material.

Provided is a solvent borne fertilizer composition. The fertilizer composition includes a low molecular weight lignin in an amount of 5 or about 5 to 25 or about 25 weight percent solids, a carbohydrate in an amount of 1 or about 1 to 20 or about 20 weight percent solids, wherein the lignin and carbohydrate form a lignin-carbohydrate mixture; and a urea moiety bonded to the lignin-carbohydrate mixture.

The invention discloses a lignin degradation product-bisphenol A-polyurethane polycondensate additive, and a preparation method thereof. Lignin is used as a raw material, and is degraded by an alkali activator, a metal catalyst and nitrobenzene to obtain the lignin degradation product; then, the obtained lignin degradation product is uniformly mixed with bisphenol A, and polyurethane is added; finally, the additive is obtained after heating reaction and drying. The preparation process of the invention is simple, and the obtained lignin degradation product has a small and stable molecular weight and has abundant phenolic hydroxyl and alcoholic hydroxyl sites, which can improve the dispersibility of the product, with strong cohesiveness and good waterproofness. It solves the problem of industrial application that lignin replaces part of phenols in the prior art, which leads to the decline of product performance, improves the total substitution rate of chemicals derived from biomass to bisphenol A derived from fossil resources, and significantly reducing the discharge of phenolic compounds. The additive is an environment-friendly polymeric material with excellent development potential.

It is disclosed purifies industrial lignin, performs Mannich reaction on purified industrial lignin, aldehyde and amino acid, simultaneously dopes nitrogen and sulfur elements into lignin, and performs high-temperature activation to obtain the carbonized amino acid modified lignin in accordance with a principle of green chemistry; a porous carbon material is prepared from the carbonized amino acid modified lignin by means of a two-step activation method, and an electrochemical workstation is applied to investigate electrochemical performance of the carbonized amino acid modified lignin as a supercapacitor; layered porous carbon having high specific surface area is prepared, the layered porous carbon has high specific heat capacity and stable cycle performance without attenuation when the supercapacitor is prepared from the layered porous carbon, and the method used has a wide application prospect in the aspect of preparing a porous carbon material for the supercapacitor.

Processes are provided for the production of humic acids from coal such as lignite, involving mixing comminuted coal solids with an aqueous alkaline solution under subcritical extraction conditions, which comprise an extraction temperature of from 25 to 50° C.; an extraction pressure of from > 0.1 MPa to < 0.5 MPa; a flow of an oxygen containing gas; and potassium hydroxide.

A method of depolymerizing a biopolymer in a biomass is presented, the method comprising the step of contacting the biopolymer with a reaction system comprising at least one catalyst, at least one electron source, and at least one solvent. A second method of depolymerizing a biopolymer in a biomass is presented, the method comprising the step of contacting the biopolymer with an electrochemical cell comprising at least one catalyst, at least one solvent, at least one electrolyte, an anode, and a cathode. A third method of depolymerizing a biopolymer is presented, the method comprising the steps of providing a biopolymer; adding a photoredox-active functional group to the biopolymer to form a modified biopolymer; and irradiating the modified biopolymer with light in the presence of a reaction mixture; said mixture comprising a photoredox catalyst.