Molecular structure and composition elucidation of an industrial humin and its fractions.

Humins, (side-)products of the acid-catalysed dehydration of carbohydrates, will be produced in substantial quantities with the development of industrial biorefining processes. Most structural knowledge about such humins is based on synthetic model humins prepared at lab-scale from typical carbohydrate(-derived) compounds. Here, we report the first extensive characterisation study of an industrial humin.

New insights into the base catalyzed depolymerization of technical lignins: a systematic comparison.

A first systematic approach on the base catalyzed depolymerization (BCD) of five technical lignins derived from various botanical origins (herbaceous, hardwood and softwood) and covering the main three industrial pulping methods (soda, kraft and organosolv) is reported. This study provides a first of its kind in-depth quantification and structural characterization of two main BCD fractions namely lignin oil and lignin residue, describing the influence of the BCD process conditions. Depolymerization is evaluated in terms of lignin conversion, lignin oil yield, phenolic monomer selectivity and the production of lignin residue and char.

Base-free, one-pot chemocatalytic conversion of glycerol to methyl lactate using supported gold catalysts.

We report an efficient one-pot conversion of glycerol (GLY) to methyl lactate (MLACT) in methanol in good yields (73 % at 95 % GLY conversion) by using Au nanoparticles on commercially available ultra-stable zeolite-Y (USY) as the catalyst (160 °C, air, 47 bar pressure, 0.25 M GLY, GLY-to-Au mol ratio of 1407, 10 h). The best results were obtained with zeolite USY-600, a catalyst that has both Lewis and Brønsted sites.