Production of phenols from lignin via depolymerization and catalytic cracking

Production of phenols from lignin was investigated using a new conversion process consisting of two reaction steps. In the first step, depolymerization of lignin was carried out in an autoclave reactor using a silica-alumina catalyst in a water/1-butanol solution. The yield of lignin-derived liquid product reached 85-88 C-mol% under the appropriate reaction conditions. In the second step, catalytic cracking of the liquid products from the first step was carried out using a fixed-bed flow reactor over an iron oxide catalyst. With this method, total recovered fraction of phenols and the conversion of methoxy phenol reached 6.6-8.6% and 92-94%, respectively. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.