Products and applications of different lignins from biorefineries

Lignocellulosic biomass offer great potential as a sustainable source for the utilization to chemicals. In particular, lignin is predestined due to its aromatic structure. In order to make it accessible, the lignified plant material must be pretreated and fractionated before the lignin can be used in macromolecular form for material applications or after a selective deploymerisation to smaller phenolic building blocks (monomers and oligomers) a substitution of fossil based aromatics can take place. This procedure allows the maximum use of all wood ingredients, exactly according to the principle of a biorefinery. Within this article products and applications for different types of lignin will be shown.