Lignin value prior to pulping (LVPP): An advanced pulping concept
Thomas T. Kwok, Christopher O. Luettgen, Matthew J. Realff, and Andreas S. Bommarius
TAPPI JOURNAL 16 (10)
With an extensive infrastructure of kraft pulp mills, the United States pulp and paper industry is poised to take advantage of the scientific breakthroughs in lignocellulosic treatments. Volatility of oil prices and availability of ethanol subsidies have focused lignocellulosic research on the production of biofuels. Consequently, billions of dollars have been spent to convert biomass to ethanol, focusing primarily on converting cellulose from low recalcitrant, often grassy, feedstocks (e.g. corn stover, sugarcane bagasse, and wheat straw). Discoveries of effective pre-treatments, which fractionate agricultural residues into lignin and carbohydrates, have spurred the forest products industry to pursue ethanol from woody biomass, a more recalcitrant feedstock. Though admirable as a concept, the idea of filling our nation’s gas tanks with cellulosic ethanol from recalcitrant, woody biomass is naïve at best.
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