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Show Keeping Up Wiffi&ienle, Science Service. WNU Service. Lignin From Forests, Once Waste Product, Now Found Valuable MADISON, WIS. Chemistry Chemis-try is at last learning a way to convert lignin, great waste product of the" nation's forests, for-ests, into highly valuable raw materials. In a report issued jointly by the United States Forest Products laboratory and the University of Wisconsin here, a laboratory method is described de-scribed of converting lignin into useful materials. They include: a well-known organic or-ganic solvent, wood alcohol; a new compound, propyl - cyclohexanol, which appears suitable as a lacquer solvent and which has also possibilities possibil-ities as a wood preservative; two compounds having possible use as thickening and toughening agents for varnish; and a clear, glassy resin, extremely adhesive, which has excellent potentialities as a plastic material. The process of hydrogenation, already al-ready used to make petroleum oils out of coal and cooking fats out of vegetable oils, is the one employed in turning lignin, once a waste, into a valuable forest resource. Atoms of hydrogen are added to the lignin in solution by means of heat and pressure. By this severe treatment the dissolved lignin is changed from a dark-brown color to transparency. The different compounds com-pounds created are removed by distillation. dis-tillation. There's Plenty of Lignin. Lignin comprises from 20 to 30 per cent of the stems of trees and other woody plants. .In the current research it is estimated that more than 70 per cent of this lignin can be converted into chemical raw materials ma-terials having industrial possibilities. possibil-ities. The yield of wood alcohol obtained ob-tained is several times as great, by the new process, as it is from the usual distillation of wood alone. One ready source of large supplies sup-plies of lignin is the 1,500.000 tons of the material, annually discarded by factories making pulp for rayon and for the better grades of white paper. Research is now in progress to free these waste liquors of their sulphur content. If this can be done on a commercial scale, such plant wastes will turn into valuable raw materials for chemistry. |