Influence of biopretreatment on the character of corn stover lignin as shown by thermogravimetric and chemical structural analyses

Abstract

The effect of corn stover lignin structure alteration caused by white-rot fungi pretreatment on the pyrolysis kinetics was studied by FTIR and TG/DTA. Results showed that biopretreatment had a remarkable effect on lignin pyrolysis. Biopretreatment can decrease the activation energy and increase the pre-exponential factor in the initial stage of pyrolysis, which makes it possible to start the lignin pyrolysis at a relatively gentle condition and improve the availability of biomass pyrolysis as a renewable energy. Analysis by FTIR showed that white-rot fungi destroyed the aromatic skeletal carbons, which are the main ether and carbon linkages of lignin, converting lignin into compounds having relatively simple structures. The relationship between the pyrolysis characteristics and the structure alteration pretreated by white rot fungi showed that the deconstruction and depolymerization of recalcitrant linkages of lignin could accelerate the reaction and lignin pyrolysis with lower energy consumption.