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This study prepared ternary composites PBAT/thermoplastic starch (TPS)/lignin containing 20, 30 and 40 wt% of TPS/lignin fillers via thermal compounding, and found that lignin imposes compatibilization effect on PBAT and TPS. Thermal analysis shows that the incorporation of lignin results in higher thermal stability, reduced crystallization temperatures, broader crystallization exotherms and increased Tg due to the rigid aromatic structure of lignin. Tensile tests exhibit that strain at break and tensile strength reaches a maximum at loading 10 wt% of lignin. The reinforcement of lignin is reflected as the enhanced elastic modulus, Shore-D hardness, and more prominent yielding behavior of the composites. Rheological and microscope measurements show that the incorporation of lignin leads to higher approximation to theoretical Han curve, and reduced TPS particle size in the composites, indicating that lignin improves the interfacial compatibility between the PBAT and TPS phases. Contact angle and water absorption results demonstrate that lignin improves the hydrophobicity and water repelling ability of the composites, which are favorable for products with prolonged mechanical properties and shelf life.

Biobutanol is an important alternative fuel source, but current processing methods suffer from low yields. This study aimed to develop and optimize a pretreatment protocol for biobutanol production from cornstalks. Fractionation of cornstalks into carbohydrate (cellulose and hemicellulose) and lignin was performed by alkali-catalyzed organosolv pretreatment (ACOS). After optimization of the process parameters, more than 80% of the total lignin was removed, with minimal hemicellulose degradation, at 110 °C, 4% (w/w dry cornstalk) NaOH, 90 min reaction time, and 60% (v/v) ethanol. After enzymatic hydrolysis, the maximum recovery of total monosaccharide was 83.7% (85.0% cellulose, 82.0% hemicellulose). In acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation, a slightly higher total ABE concentration (12.8 g/L vs. 11.9 g/L) was produced from the enzymatic hydrolysate, compared with that from a glucose control. The physical structure and chemical properties of alkali-catalyzed organosolv lignin (ACOSL) showed higher phenolic group content and antioxidant capacity compared with alkali lignin. ACOS pretreatment is an economical method for the production of fermentable monosaccharide and high-value lignin, for use in biofuel production.

The continuous production of furfural using vaporization reactor as a continuous stirred tank reactor is reported in this study. 50 g L−1 xylose solution was continuous fed into the reactor and catalyzed by 2 wt% H2SO4 at 433 K gave 82.3% average yield of furfural in 10 h of reaction time. Pulp prehydrolysate derives from prehydrolysis of wood biomass was further used as the raw material for the reaction, and the 78.6% average yield of furfural was achieved for 10 h. According to Aspen Plus simulation, 11.7 tons of saturated steam was required for the production of one ton of furfural under the present reaction system, which is almost half of the traditional one-step method.