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Effect of hierarchical HZSM-5 zeolite on the catalytic depolymerization of organosolv lignin to renewable phenols

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Abstract

In order to intrinsically boost the lignin catalytic depolymerization performance of HZSM-5 (HM5) zeolite catalyst, we investigated the depolymerization of lignin-to-aromatic products over different hierarchical HM5 zeolite catalyst to understand the presence of mesoporosity on the catalytic activity in generating aromatic monomers. Firstly, different hierarchical HM-5 zeolite catalyst (HM5, 0.15HM5, 0.35HM5 and 0.75HM5) were prepared by the physical method. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and temperature-programmed desorption of ammonia (NH3-TPD) were used to characterize catalysts. Compared with conventional HM5 zeolite catalyst, the hierarchical HM5 (0.35HM5) catalyst showed a significant strengthening effect on the depolymerization of organosolv lignin. Among them, the 4-unsaturated phenolic monomer product was decreased from 0.52 to 0%, the 4-alkyl phenol product was increased from 1.6 to 4.07%, and the no side chain phenolic monomer product was increased from 3.4 to 9.16%. In addition, we also illustrated that the hierarchical 0.35HM5 zeolite catalyst had high stability, and it could be reused for up to five cycles without loss of catalytic activity. It was worth noting that phenolic monomers products produced by hierarchical 0.35HM5 zeolite catalyst had great potential to be a promising renewable alternative to fossil resources.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the supports by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 31170554 and 31470604), and the Open Foundation of the State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Papermaking Engineering, South China University of Technology (Grant No. 201803).

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  1. Hongwei Zhu and Boyu Du have contributed equally to the article (co-first authors).

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Liaoning Key Laboratory of Pulp and Papermaking Engineering, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian, 116034, Liaoning, China

    Hongwei Zhu, Boyu Du, Zhenshu Zhang, Xing Wang, Bingyang Liu & Jinghui Zhou

  2. State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Xing Wang

  3. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, Gunma University, Kiryu, Gunma, Japan

    Yang Sun

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  1. Hongwei Zhu
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Contributions

HZ: Writing-review & editing. BD: Writing-original draft and Writing-review & editing. ZZ: Writing-original draft, Resources and Software. XW: Formal analysis. YS: Conceptualization and Data curation. BL: Project administration and Supervision. JZ: Validation.

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Correspondence to Xing Wang or Jinghui Zhou.

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Zhu, H., Du, B., Zhang, Z. et al. Effect of hierarchical HZSM-5 zeolite on the catalytic depolymerization of organosolv lignin to renewable phenols. J Porous Mater 29, 445–457 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10934-021-01176-z

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