Extraction of vanillin from lignin or ferulic acid by oxidation with hydrogen peroxide

The client is higher education and scientific institution founded in 1919. The client has close ties with Slovenian companies and enterprises. Their partners include multinational corporations and the most successful Slovenian and foreign companies. As they are fully aware of the importance of knowledge and skills in obtaining their own financial sources, they are increasingly developing their market oriented activities every year. The client offers an innovative technology that can be used in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry. Growing awareness of environmental issues is drawing a lot of attention to the extraction of materials and useful chemicals from natural and waste sources. When obtaining compounds from nature, it is necessary to consider that their use does not have a negative impact on the ecosystem and that materials that are useful as a food source are not used. At the same time, it is necessary to consider that the used material continuously provides a source of plant biomass in nature. Biomass generally consists of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and secondary metabolites. In papermaking, the cellulosic part of biomass is used, while lignin is a waste material that is excreted in the form of a black base during the process. The lignin base consists mainly of lignin, which is the only sustainable source of aromas in nature and sugars. Slovenian researchers developed and patented the process of converting of lignin and ferulic acid into vanillin using hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant and vanadium oxide as a catalyst. Vanillin is produced selectively. In the oxidative degradation of lignin, three aromatic aldehydes are formed. In the process, the other two aldehydes are converted further and this results in selective vanillin. The process can be modified to convert to other products, e.g. vanillic acid. Vanillin, produced according to researchers innovative technology, can be used as aroma in food industry, as fragrance in cosmetic industry and in pharmaceutical industry. Researchers are for international partners - spruce wood processing companies (also biorefineries) for research cooperation agreements for further development of the technology (validation/demonstration of the technology in relevant industrial environment). Researchers are also interested in offering the technology to interested companies under licencing agreement.