ThaiScience  


ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE RESEARCH


Volume 47, No. 01, Month JANUARY, Year 2020, Pages 36 - 46


Succinic acid production from lignin by photo-oxidation

Manmard Suttipornphaisalkul, Phillip Wright, Khanita Kamwilaisak


Abstract Download PDF

Lignin is one of three components that make up wood, and it is the most recalcitrant among these compounds due to its highly degradation-resistant phenolic polymer structure. Lignin is composed of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, which has the potential to be a feedstock for biofuels and biorefining processes. In this work, lignin was depolymerized to produce succinic and acetic acids via a photocatalytic reaction. TiO2 and H2O2 under UV-light were used as a photocatalyst and photocatalyst promoter, respectively. The effect of TiO2 and H2O2 dosage, solution pH and reaction time on %yield of dicarboxylic acid was determined. Optimization of reaction conditions was done with response surface methodology using a Box-Behnken design. It was found that the maximum %yield of succinic acid (7.8%) was at a reaction time of 24 h, a 2.37 g/l of TiO2 dosage and 25.45 μl of H2O2 dosage and pH 7.0. The predicted dicarboxylic acid yield using was accurate with R2=91.8%. This would be an alternative way to produce high-value fine chemicals from lignin.


Keywords

Dicarboxylic acid, Succinic acid, Lignin, Photo-oxidation



ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE RESEARCH


Published by : Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University
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