Vanillin lignin

No residual guaiacol can be found in vanillin produced by the guaiacol process. In contrast to vanillin from lignin, vanillin from guaiacol is extremely consistent in quaUty owing to the consistency of the supply source, and shows no variation in taste, odor, or color. 

The Norwegian company Borregaard makes vanillin by chemo-oxidation of cheap natural lignin. In view of the complexity of the lignin structure this is a remarkable achievement. This semi-synthetic vanillin is, however, not allowed to carry the qualification of natural . Borregaard is the only global producer of lignin-vanillin or wood-sourced vanillin , with a volume of about 2000 t a-1. They obtain 4 kg vanillin from one ton of wood. This vanillin is more expensive than synthetic vanillin, but the flavorist needs lower doses of the extra round flavor . 

Keywords Black liquor, crystallization process, oil palm empty fmit bunches, soda lignin, vanillin... 

The production of multiple products is generally seen as necessary to increase the economic viability of biomass conversion. This is encapsulated in the concept of a biorefmery , which according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is a facility that integrates conversion processes and equipment to produce fuels, power and chemicals from biomass [23], Examples of chemicals that can be produced from biomass include ethanol, methanol, furfural, paper, lignin, vanillin, lactic acid, dimethylsulfoxide and xylitol. In many cases, using biomass as a feedstock for chemical production requires an initial step to separate or fractionate the three main components into usable fractions [20, 22], This also maximises the usage of the different biomass components. 

The vanillin market is in fact shared by two products the natural vanillin contained in vanilla beans, an extremely highly priced ( 4000 /kg) and scarce product, and the synthetic (from phenols) or hemisynthetic (from lignin) vanillins which are produced in large quantities and are relatively cheap (40 /kg). 

It is even possible to characterize the addition of 5% lignin vanillin in the natural product at a 95% confidence level. 

Figure 2 illustrate the ability of 2H-NMR to discriminate between the vanillin groups. Since three groups are involved, the whole variance is distributed in only two orthogonal directions. The main axe D, is closely related to the deuterium content of the formyl group, whereas the second function D2 makes a clear distinction between natural and lignin vanillin. The classification is 100% complete at a 99.9% confidence level. 

The Remier-Tiemann reaction is also used to produce another form of vanillin called ethyl vanillin. Ethyl vanillin is the ethyl ether of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, 4-hydroxy-3-ethoxybenzaldehyde ((CH3CH20)(0H)C6H3CH0). It is a close chemical relative of natural vanillin in which the methyl ( CH3) group of natural vanillin is replaced by an ethyl ( CH2CH3) group. Ethyl vanillin is also known as artificial vanilla or synthetic vanilla. Its flavor is about three times as strong as that of methyl vanillin and is used to fortify or replace natural vanillin and lignin vanillin. 

---