New Solvent Could Drastically Reduce Paper Industry Energy Use

Feb-15-14 A new solvent able to extract cellulose from wood chips faster than traditional methods could be a “game changer” in the paper industry.

To create paper from wood, the vegetable material must first be broken down into lignin and cellulose, which are quite difficult to separate. Traditionally, this has been accomplished by using high pressures and temperatures, which use large amounts of water and energy.

The new solvent, however, is able to dissolve the wood chips—which was not possible before because lignine has previously been considered insoluble. However, the new ‘deep eutectic solvent’ (DES) is able to produce very pure lignine relatively easily, and also has the advantage of being completely biodegradable and vegetable-based. The production of pure lignine also has other potential applications, including the making possible the manufacturing of biodegradable plastics.

Image: Softwood dissolved in the new DES solvent. The lignine is at the top and the wood pulp at the bottom.

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[INHABITAT.COM]
[EINDHOVEN UNIVERSITY]

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