Biovalorization of technical lignins for added-value products and applications

Abstract

Lignin is an abundant non-toxic amorphous natural polymer. Nowadays it is available a great variety and large amounts of technical lignins as by-products from the pulp and paper industries. Some successful biotechnological applications of enzymatically modified lignins are described in the literature, namely for the production of lignin based copolymers, binders for wood composites, chelating agents, compositions for treating porous materials, coatings, paintings and others. From a new species from Bjerkandera genus which exhibits high decolourisation activity on Poly R-478 and Remazol Brilliant Blue R (RBBR) dyes, was isolated, purified and identified the main enzyme responsible for Remazol Brilliant Blue R dye decolourisation. Such an enzyme is able to oxidise manganese, as well as VA and DMP in manganese-independent reactions; the enzyme substrate range for oxidation of several phenolic and non-phenolic aromatic compounds was determined. This enzyme was tested for transformation of a lignin fraction obtained from straw pulping. Characterisation by gel filtration chromatography of the evolution of the molecular mass distribution of the lignin fragments generated by said enzyme indicated that this enzyme is able to interact directly with lignin in the absence of other mediators.