Flowthrough Reductive Catalytic Fractionation of Biomass

Reductive catalytic fractionation (RCF) has emerged as a leading biomass fractionation and lignin valorization strategy. Here, flowthrough reactors were used to investigate RCF of poplar. Most RCF studies to date have been conducted in batch, but a flow-based process enables the acquisition of intrinsic kinetic and mechanistic data essential to accelerate the design, optimization, and scale-up of RCF processes. Time-resolved product distributions and yields obtained from experiments with different catalyst loadings were used to identify and deconvolute events during solvolysis and hydrogenolysis. Multi-bed RCF experiments provided unique insights into catalyst deactivation, showing that leaching, sintering, and surface poisoning are causes for decreased catalyst performance. The onset of catalyst deactivation resulted in higher concentrations of unsaturated lignin intermediates and increased occurrence of repolymerization reactions, producing high-molecular-weight species. Overall, this study demonstrates the concept of flowthrough RCF, which will be vital for realistic scale-up of this promising approach.