Within the last few years, research towards lignin valorization through optimization of the extraction and/or depolymerization processes has been ever increasing. Extraction strategies like mild Soda pulping of herbaceous biomass, instead of the current Kraft pulping of hardwood, have proven to produce both pulp of adequate quality and lignin with a native like structure, fit for valorization through depolymerization. Additionally, mild reductive catalytic depolymerization (MRCD) of lignin has been identified to deliver very high selectivity towards functionalized aromatics while also offering low operating conditions and the use of green chemicals such as water and ethanol. Yet, some important hurdles still delay the full exploitation of the chemical potential within lignin through the MRCD and, by extension, RCF processes. This study aims to address these hurdles in a multidisciplinary approach: (1) addressing  the lack of specialized analysis techniques capable of analyzing the entire product pool by the development of a two-dimensional GPC-HPLC-UV-VIS method, (2) lowering the catalysts synthesis costs through partial substitution of Pd with non-noble metals in bimetallic catalysts, (3) understanding the complex interplay between pulping and depolymerization processes and (4) enabling the transition from batch to continuous reactors with important insights generated through catalyst characterization and product pool analysis.

An Verberckmoes is professor at the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture of the Ghent University and co-heads the INCAT (INdustrial Catalysis and Adsorption Technology) Research group. She obtained her M.Sc. in Bio-engineering in Chemistry and her Ph.D. at the University of Leuven. Between 1998 and 2008 she worked at the R&D Center of ExxonMobil in Machelen and acquainted industrial experience in the area of catalyst and process development and scale-up of industrial catalysts. In 2008, she joined the University College of Ghent, and later in 2013, the University of Ghent. Her research focuses on the synthesis, optimization and testing of heterogeneous catalysts (e.g. zeolites, mixed oxides, hybrid catalysts, supported nanoparticles) in various catalytic applications (e.g. alcohol dehydration, oligomerization, lignin depolymerization and valorization) and investigating process optimizations.