Artificial humification of lignin architecture: Top-down and bottom-up approaches.

Artificial humification of lignin architecture: Top-down and bottom-up approaches. Biotechnol Adv. 2019 Jul 16;:107416 Authors: Lee JG, Yoon HY, Cha JY, Kim WY, Kim PJ, Jeon JR Abstract Humic substances readily identifiable in the environment are involved in several biotic and abiotic reactions affecting carbon turnover, soil fertility, plant nutrition and stimulation, xenobiotic transformation and microbial respiration. Inspired by natural roles of humic substances, several applications of these substances, including organic fertilizers, redox mediators, anti-oxidants, human medicines, environmental remediation and fish feeding, have been developed. The annual market for humic substances has grown rapidly for these reasons and due to eco-conscious features, but there is a limited supply of natural coal-related resources such as lignite and leonardites from which humic substances are extracted in bulk. The structural similarity between humic substances and lignin suggests that lignocellulosic refinery resulting in lignin residues as a by-product could be a potential candidate for a bulk source of humic-like substances, but structural differences between the two polymeric materials indicate that additional transformation procedures allowing lignin architecture to fully mimic commercial humic substances are required. In this review, we introduce the emerging concept of artificial humification of lignin-related materials as a promising ...
Source: Biotechnology Advances - Category: Biotechnology Authors: Tags: Biotechnol Adv Source Type: research