About this Research Topic
Chemicals, energies and materials derived from lignocellulosic biomass are renewable and sustainable, and have the potential to replace fossil feedstocks. Biorefinery, a process to fractionate lignocellulose into the three major components, is considered one of the most promising strategies for bioenergy, biomaterials and biochemicals, but until now, due to the complex hierarchy and chemical structures, only 2% of lignocellulose is valorized into value-added products, and most of them are burnt or just discarded, although biomass is the most renewable resource on earth. Therefore, there is a need look in depth in the processes that can interpret the heterogeneous structure of lignocellulose, to improve its efficient fractionation into cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin, and develop the technology that can convert the lignocellulose into high-value chemical products and high-performance functional materials in a sustainable and promising way.
The complex compositional structure of lignocellulosic biomass and biomass recalcitrance severely inhibits their effective conversion and selective production of high-value products. Therefore, before utilizing lignocellulose, we must comprehensively understand its heterogeneous structure by advanced characterization (for example by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance - NMR), which will guide the further fractionation of lignocellulose via efficiently breaking the biomass recalcitrance. In this context, catalytic fractionation is also promising strategy for the separation of derivative of a certain component from the reaction mixture and the utilization of the residual solid. After obtaining the high-purity component, lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses, techniques should be developed to transform them into chemicals, materials or fuel. The ultimate goal of biomass utilization is that can produce the production of biofuels and biomaterials in industrial production must be cost-, and performance- competitive with petroleum-derived equivalents.
Original Research articles and Review articles focusing on the characterization, fractionation and conversion of lignocellulose as well as applications of lignocellulosic materials are welcome. The topical interests include, but are not limited to the following areas:
• Novel and high-efficiency biomass fractionation methods for improving lignin quality and promoting the enzyme hydrolysis of cellulose
• Structural elucidation of native and fractionated biomass, such cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin.
• Chemocatalytic depolymerization of biomass
• Upgrading of lignin to fuels and chemicals
• Lignocellulose-based materials
• Process simulation of integrated biorefinery and techno-economic analysis
• Bioenergy and Biomass biorefinery results from pilot, demonstration, and industrial plants
The complex compositional structure of lignocellulosic biomass and biomass recalcitrance severely inhibits their effective conversion and selective production of high-value products. Therefore, before utilizing lignocellulose, we must comprehensively understand its heterogeneous structure by advanced characterization (for example by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance - NMR), which will guide the further fractionation of lignocellulose via efficiently breaking the biomass recalcitrance. In this context, catalytic fractionation is also promising strategy for the separation of derivative of a certain component from the reaction mixture and the utilization of the residual solid. After obtaining the high-purity component, lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses, techniques should be developed to transform them into chemicals, materials or fuel. The ultimate goal of biomass utilization is that can produce the production of biofuels and biomaterials in industrial production must be cost-, and performance- competitive with petroleum-derived equivalents.
Original Research articles and Review articles focusing on the characterization, fractionation and conversion of lignocellulose as well as applications of lignocellulosic materials are welcome. The topical interests include, but are not limited to the following areas:
• Novel and high-efficiency biomass fractionation methods for improving lignin quality and promoting the enzyme hydrolysis of cellulose
• Structural elucidation of native and fractionated biomass, such cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin.
• Chemocatalytic depolymerization of biomass
• Upgrading of lignin to fuels and chemicals
• Lignocellulose-based materials
• Process simulation of integrated biorefinery and techno-economic analysis
• Bioenergy and Biomass biorefinery results from pilot, demonstration, and industrial plants
Keywords: lignocellulose, fractionation, structural characterization, conversion, value-added utilization
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