Microwave assisted liquefaction of wheat straw alkali lignin for the production of monophenolic compounds

Abstract The microwave assisted liquefaction process of wheat straw alkali lignin was investigated to obtain monophenolic compounds as the precursor of bio-fuel. It is found that the total yield of monophenolic compounds is significantly improved under microwave irradiation, reaching 15.77% under a relatively mild liquefaction condition of 10 wt% H 2 SO 4 as the catalyst, 10 wt% phenol as the hydrogen-donor reagent at 120 °C for 40 min. Compared with conventional thermal liquefaction process, microwave irradiation promotes the cleavage of C–C bonds, which gives an extra 29% of C aryl –C α bond cleavage, and increases the yield of monophenolic compounds from 0.92% to 13.61% under the same conditions. The excessive temperature and prolonged time under microwave irradiation will promote the recondensation of degraded lignin fragments, so the key to obtain high yield of monophenolic compounds is to avoid the recondensation reaction. The selected solid catalyst promotes the dissociation of methoxy groups, and the addition of phenol into liquefaction can only slightly improve the yield of monophencolic compounds.