Relevance between chemical structure and pyrolysis behavior of palm kernel shell lignin

Palm kernel shell (PKS) lignin obtained by enzymatic/mild acid hydrolysis (EMAL) was thoroughly elucidated by FTIR (fourier transform infrared), ¹³C-¹H 2D-NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance), quantitative ³¹P NMR combined with DFRC (derivatization followed by reductive cleavage), and Py-GC/MS (pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry) with and without TMAH (tetramethylammonium hydroxide). Pyrolysis behavior was then characterized by TG-FTIR-MS (thermo-gravimetric-FTIR-mass spectrometry) and Py-GC/MS. The PKS lignin is demonstrated to be a p-hydroxyphenyl-guaiacyl-syringyl (H-G-S) lignin with abundances of p-hydrobenzoates and low S/G ratio of 0.15. 2D-NMR indicated that the main substructures are β-O-4-ethers (~85%), and ³¹P NMR/DFRC quantified the total β-O-4 content of 2295μmol/g. Py-GC/MS with and without TMAH confirmed that phenol mainly originated from p-hydroxybenzoates units. Thermal-stability, evolution behavior of typical volatiles, and selectivity of phenolic compounds (H-, G-, S-, C-type) during PKS lignin pyrolysis were explored. Relationship between chemical structure and pyrolysis behavior are also obtained. This work will provide a deep insight to the effective utilization of PKS.