Catalytic depolymerization of lignin from wood waste biomass over natural sourced ZSM-5 catalysts

Lignin isolated from wood waste biomass, contains 61.07 % of lignin, was converted to vanillin using ZSM-5 catalysts. Prior to use, wood waste biomass was delignified to enrich its lignin contents followed by added 10 % H2SO4 to isolate the lignin such as solid black material. Three types of ZSM-5 catalysts i.e. hierarchical ZSM-5, NiO/hierarchical ZSM-5 and CuO/hierarchical ZSM-5 zeolites were used as catalysts in this study. Hierarchical ZSM-5 zeolite was prepared through TPAOH template synthesis methods followed by PDDAM as secondary template. Silicate and aluminate source based on a natural source to form hierarchical ZSM-5 zeolite. Hierarchical ZSM-5 zeolite is modified with NiO and CuO by using impregnation method with Ni nitrate and Cu nitrate solution followed by calcination at 550 C. The characterization of catalysts employed FTIR, XRD, andSEM-EDX. The reaction was carried out in 200 mL-batch reactor at 100 C, 150 C, 200 C, 250 C and 300 C in the presence of ethanol and water (v/v) for 30 min. CuO/hierarchical ZSM-5 zeolite gave the highest % yield of vanillin as product (4.68 %) followed by NiO/hierarchical ZSM-5 zeolite (3.82 %) for the variation of temperature, compared to other ZSM-5 catalysts.