Swiss Researchers Discover Step to Convert Lignin into Biofuel

Scientists at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale De Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have turned lignin into a source of biofuel by simply adding a common chemical, formaldehyde. The novel method converts up to 80% of lignin into valuable compounds for biofuel and plastics and can be scaled up to industrial levels.

Lignin is an enormously complex biopolymer, filling the hard wall of the plant cell and makes up almost a third of plant biomass. The problem is that lignin is difficult to extract and transform due to its instability. An international team of researchers led by Jeremy Luterbacher at EPFL have revealed that they can easily break lignin apart simply by adding formaldehyde to the process.

Formaldehyde, a widely used chemical, stabilizes lignin and prevents it from degrading, leading to significantly higher yields of building blocks that can be used to make substitutes for petrochemicals.