有人说地球生物圈每年生产生物质1500亿吨，这足够人类社会所有的能源和材料需求。

 有人说自然生长的生物质有20－40是木质素。

 造纸是最大的生物质利用和分离过程，纤维素成为纸张，半纤维素和木质素进入黑液。

 在漫长的工业化年代，造纸黑液是最大的水体环境污染源。

 近几十年来，造纸黑液被限制排放，要求分离和利用其中的有机物，这些有机物被分离以后成为碱木质素。

 碱木质素被用于烧锅炉回收热量和碱。

 我们把碱木质素拆解成了6－10个碳的小分子。

 有人说，这是一个世界难题。

 我认为，这是一个工业催化工程师的设计作品。

Angewandte

Communications

Biomass Conversion

DOI : 10.1002/anie.201402752

Catalytic Ethanolysis of Kraft Lignin into High-Value Small-Molecular Chemicals  over a Nanostructured a-Molybdenum Carbide Catalyst*

Rui Ma, Wenyue Hao, Xiaolei Ma, Ye Tian, and Yongdan Li*

Abstract: We report the complete ethanolysis of Kraft lignin over an a-MoC1x/AC catalyst in pure ethanol at 280 ^oC to give high-value chemicals of low molecular weight with a maximum overall yield of the 25 most abundant liquid products (LP25) of 1.64 g per gram of lignin. The LP25 products consisted of C6–C10 esters, alcohols, arenes, phenols, and benzyl alcohols with an overall heating value of 36.5 MJ/kg. C6 alcohols and C8 esters predominated and accounted for 82 wt% of the LP25 products. No oligomers or char were formed in the process. With our catalyst, ethanol is the only effective solvent for the reaction. Supercritical ethanol on its own degrades Kraft lignin into a mixture of small molecules and molecular fragments of intermediate size with molecular weights in the range 700–1400, differing in steps of 58 units, which is the weight of the branched-chain linkage C3H6O in lignin. Hydrogen was found to have a negative effect on the formation of the low-molecularweight products.

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 7310 –7315