Fractionation, characterization, and economic evaluation of alkali lignin from saw industry waste

• Published in: Bioresource technology 2021-09, Vol.335, p.125260-125260, Article 125260
• Main Authors: Nivedha, Murugesan, Manisha, Madhusudhanan, Gopinath, Margavelu, Baskar, Gurunathan, Tamilarasan, Krishnamurthi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antioxidant activity; Economic analysis; Lignin nanoparticles; Saw industry; Total phenolic content
• ISSN: 0960-8524; 1873-2976
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2021.125260

•Lignin extracted from sawdust biomass by alkali fractionation method.•Structure, total phenol content and antioxidant characteristics of lignin were analyzed.•Industrial level model was developed for the simulation of lignin fractionation process.•Economic and sensitivity of lignin fractionation process were analyzed. The present work was focused on the investigation of lignin isolation from saw industry biomass (sawdust (SD)) using alkali solution, and to perform economic analysis for 2000 kg/batch hypothetical plant using techno-economic analysis. The isolated lignin was fractionated using organic solvent to obtain purified lignin. FTIR and 1H NMR analysis were performed to examine the structural characteristics of lignin. Lignin nanoparticles (LN) showed higher total phenolic content (TPC) (244.1 ± 2 µg of GAE per mg) and antioxidant activity (63.2 ± 1.7%) compared with crude lignin (CL), ethanol fractionated lignin (EL), and acetone fractionated lignin (AL). SuperPro designer was exposed to design and simulated 2000 kg/batch of sawdust fractionation process. The techno-economic analysis estimated that the lignin production cost is about $ 487,000 per year, and the annual revenue could be $ 1,850,000 per year. The techno-economic analysis and sensitivity analysis could be useful for the industrial level sawdust fractionation process.