Enzymatic Oxidation of Biorefinery Lignin

Abstract

Lignocellulosic biomass is the main source of renewable chemicals in the future. Biorefinery methods can be used to separate the three major components, which are cellulose, hemicel-lulose and lignin. Treatment methods, where the polysaccharides are hydrolyzed, resulting in the production of hydrolysis lignin (HL). In order to valorize HL further enzymatic treat-ment is promising and can be a game changer in the biorefinery approach. The goal of the present work was to investigate possibilities to use enzymatic oxidation in valorization of HL. For the first time, the treatment of industrially fractionated HL with enzymes was used. Four different laccases and a peroxidase were tested. All enzymes showed activity in most conditions for different HL-s. A positive result was the observation of enzyme activity in conditions with several times higher HL content than previously described.