There's an old saying in the biofuels industry: 'You can make anything from lignin except money.' But now, a new study may pave the way to challenging that adage. The study demonstrates a concept that ...

Carbon fibers are usually produced on an industrial scale from polyacrylonitrile (PAN). The stabilization and carbonization of the fibers takes place with long dwell times in high-temperature furnaces ...

A new low-temperature multi-phase process for upgrading lignin bio-oil to hydrocarbons could help expand use of the lignin, which is now largely a waste product left over from the productions of ...

Lignin—a tough, mixed polymer found in plant cell walls—is nature’s most abundant stockpile of aromatic functional groups. Because of this, lignin’s rich natural complexity could be a well of new ...

The demand for vanillin vastly outstrips the natural resources of this flavoring agent. A chemical process is thus used to produce the required large quantities of vanillin from petroleum, which is ...

After Michael Lake got his Ph.D. in chemical engineering and joined the paper company Westvaco, he soon became convinced that lignin—needed by trees but unwanted by the paper industry—was the material ...

Lignin is the rigid polymer that gives trees their strength. The paper industry usually treats lignin as a low-value by-product because it’s too dark to print on. If you coat white paper with standard ...

A new process for upgrading lignin bio-oil could expand the use of lignin, which is now largely a waste product.