Recent strides toward transforming lignin into plastics and aqueous electrolytes for flow batteries
Omar Y. Abdelaziz,
Mariona Battestini Vives,
Smita V. Mankar,
Niklas Warlin,
Tran Tam Nguyen,
Baozhong Zhang,
Christian P. Hulteberg,
Amirreza Khataee
Affiliations
Omar Y. Abdelaziz
Department of Chemical Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia; Interdisciplinary Research Center for Refining & Advanced Chemicals, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia; Corresponding author
Mariona Battestini Vives
Division of Chemical Engineering, Department of Process and Life Science Engineering, Lund University, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden
Smita V. Mankar
Centre for Analysis and Synthesis, Department of Chemistry, Lund University, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden
Niklas Warlin
Centre for Analysis and Synthesis, Department of Chemistry, Lund University, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden; Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94306, USA
Tran Tam Nguyen
Centre for Analysis and Synthesis, Department of Chemistry, Lund University, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden
Baozhong Zhang
Centre for Analysis and Synthesis, Department of Chemistry, Lund University, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden
Christian P. Hulteberg
Division of Chemical Engineering, Department of Process and Life Science Engineering, Lund University, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden; Corresponding author
Amirreza Khataee
Division of Applied Electrochemistry, Department of Chemical Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Summary: Lignin is an abundant polyaromatic polymer with a wide range of potential future uses. However, the conversion of lignin into valuable products comes at a cost, and medium- to high-value applications are thus appropriate. Two examples of these are polymers (e.g., as fibers, plasticizers, or additives) and flow batteries (e.g., as redox species). Both of these areas would benefit from lignin-derived molecules with potentially low molecular weight and high (electro)chemical functionality. A promising route to obtain these molecules is oxidative lignin depolymerization, as it enables the formation of targeted compounds with multiple functionalities. An application with high potential in the production of plastics is the synthesis of new sustainable polymers. Employing organic molecules, such as quinones and heterocycles, would constitute an important step toward the sustainability of aqueous flow batteries, and lignin and its derivatives are emerging as redox species, mainly due to their low cost and renewability.