Researchers at the UPV give a new use to the pulp industry.
A group of professors and researchers from the University of the Basque Country has patented a method to achieve “high added value compounds” from lignin, a waste from the paper industry that in the future may replace “many plastic materials derived from Petroleum”. This system, called ‘Novel method for the depolymerization of lignin’, was developed by researchers from the School of Engineering of Gipuzkoa of the UPV / EHU, led by Jalel Labidi, reported yesterday the academic institution.

According to experts, in the near future, lignin – an organic polymer, one of the most abundant compounds in plants that, together with cellulose, forms the cell wall of these – will have, among many other capabilities,

“To replace many plastic materials derived from petroleum, in addition to being used in various ways in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, food or cosmetic industry”, among others.

At present, Jalel Labidi, director of the research group BioRP Biorefinery Processes of the UPV, the lignin from the waste that is obtained in the pulp industry “does not present commercial value, because its quality is very low” .

With the new method, however, the lignin (from the residues) is achieved by “phenolic oils at a low cost”.

“The phenolic compounds obtained (catechol and derivatives) have a high added value, since they can be exploited in various ways in the chemical industry: in sectors such as plastic, pharmaceutical, agrochemical or food”, says Labidi.

“Thanks to the patent we increase the competitive advantages of the pulp industry, as the by-product or ‘black liquor’ obtained in the process of turning the wood into cellulose pulp is valued,” says the researcher, who points out that Novelty is that “it is no longer necessary to extract lignin, through costly procedures, from that ‘black liquor’ in order to obtain phenolic compounds”.

The method has a great industrial adaptability, as the novel procedure is “easily adaptable” to existing facilities in our environment. “It is fully developed to be industrialized,” says Jalel Labidi.

The authors of the patent are researchers Xabier Erdocia, Marian Corcuera and Jalel Labidi. The idea arose during the development of the doctoral thesis of Erdocia. The work was carried out in the laboratories of the group ‘Processes of Biorrefinería’ in the School of Engineering of Gipuzkoa.