{"id":88464,"date":"2019-03-06T18:42:19","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T02:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/what-to-do-with-the-lignin"},"modified":"2019-03-06T18:42:19","modified_gmt":"2019-03-07T02:42:19","slug":"what-to-do-with-the-lignin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/what-to-do-with-the-lignin","title":{"rendered":"What to do with the lignin?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"padding-right: 20px\"><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/what-to-do-with-the-lignin3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Learning to deal with lignin is important for recycling and space settlements. Unused biomass on space settlements and long-term voyages is something that just can\u2019t be tolerated. The same problem exists in dealing with plant waste on earth. A new process helps convert it into a precursor for polyester, which can be used for all kinds of other materials.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Plant cells are composed of three main substances: cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. According to Yining Zeng, Michael E. Himmel, and Shi-You Ding in <i>Biotechnology for Biofuels<\/i>, the composition amounts to \u201c40 to 50% of cellulose, 15 to 25% hemicelluloses, 20 to 25% lignin, and 5 to 10% other components.<sup>[1]<\/sup>\u201d For the most part, the only truly useful part is the cellulose and the hemicellulose. The lignin is usually just thrown away. The most common use is fuel for heating units. That\u2019s right. They just burn it.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"display:none;\" data-attachment-id=\"342\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/cayceedee.wordpress.com\/2019\/03\/07\/what-to-do-with-the-lignin\/lignin_procesing_into_polyester_precursor\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/cayceedee.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/03\/lignin_procesing_into_polyester_precursor.png\" data-orig-size=\"392,591\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{\u201caperture\u201d:\u201d0\u201d,\u201d credit\u201d:\u201d\u201c,\u201d camera\u201d:\u201d\u201c,\u201d caption\u201d:\u201d\u201c,\u201d created_timestamp\u201d:\u201d0\u201d,\u201d copyright\u201d:\u201d\u201c,\u201d focal_length\u201d:\u201d0\u201d,\u201d iso\u201d:\u201d0\u201d,\u201d shutter_speed\u201d:\u201d0\u201d,\u201d title\u201d:\u201d\u201c,\u201d orientation\u201d:\u201d0\u201d}\" data-image-title=\"lignin_procesing_into_polyester_precursor\" data-image-description=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/cayceedee.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/03\/lignin_procesing_into_polyester_precursor.png?w=133\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/cayceedee.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/03\/lignin_procesing_into_polyester_precursor.png?w=332\" src=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/what-to-do-with-the-lignin3.jpg\" alt=\"lignin_procesing_into_polyester_precursor\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/what-to-do-with-the-lignin3.jpg 132w, https:\/\/cayceedee.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/03\/lignin_procesing_into_polyester_precursor.png?w=264&h=398 264w, https:\/\/cayceedee.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/03\/lignin_procesing_into_polyester_precursor.png?w=66&h=100 66w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 132px)  100vw, 132px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We can\u2019t keep doing it that way. However, there really isn\u2019t an alternative. Until now. A recent article in Science Daily referenced a new journal article about the use of <em>Novosphingobium aromaticivorans<\/em>. This is \u201cgenus of Gram-negative bacteria that includes N. taihuense, which can degrade aromatic compounds such as phenol, aniline, nitrobenzene and phenanthrene.<sup>[2]<\/sup>\u201d Using genetic engineering, they deleted certain genes which allowed the microbe to convert lignin into 2-pyrone-4\u20136-dicarboxylic acid, which can be converted into polyester. The detailed information is available for free download and was published under the title \u201cFunneling aromatic products of chemically depolymerized lignin into 2-pyrone-4\u20136-dicarboxylic acid with Novosphingobium aromaticivorans.<sup>[3]<\/sup>\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- Link: <a href=\"https:\/\/cayceedee.wordpress.com\/2019\/03\/07\/what-to-do-with-the-lignin\/\">https:\/\/cayceedee.wordpress.com\/2019\/03\/07\/what-to-do-with-the-lignin\/<\/a> --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learning to deal with lignin is important for recycling and space settlements. Unused biomass on space settlements and long-term voyages is something that just can\u2019t be tolerated. The same problem exists in dealing with plant waste on earth. A new process helps convert it into a precursor for polyester, which can be used for all [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":509,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1902,3,412,8,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bioengineering","category-biological","category-genetics","category-space","category-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/509"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88464\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}