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by Natalie Hemengül
Vanilla flavouring from wood waste
20.5.2020
Translation: machine translated
Chemists have developed a process to extract the artificial flavouring vanillin from a waste product: lignin, which is produced during the manufacture of paper.
Chemists have developed a process that allows them to extract vanilla flavouring from a waste product. As the research group led by Michael Zirbes and Siegfried Waldvogel from Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz describes in the scientific journal "ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering", it utilises the hard component of wood, lignin, for this purpose. The technology is based on electrolysis to produce vanillin from the very stable starting material with comparatively little effort. Another advantage of their process, the chemists explain, is that lignin from paper production can be used, where it is produced in large quantities as a by-product.
An estimated 15,000 tonnes of vanillin are consumed worldwide every year. It is found in chocolate, cakes, deodorants and creams. Because natural vanilla, which is extracted from vanilla pods, is expensive to grow and cannot meet the high demand, there are various methods of producing vanilla artificially. Nowadays, almost all vanilla demand is met by artificially produced substances - as much as 90 per cent. Guaiacol from the petrochemical industry is the main raw material used. Although lignin is also used, only around 15 per cent of vanillin has been produced in this way to date.
Less CO2 emissions
As Siegfried Waldvogel told the trade magazine "Chemical & Engineering News", these common processes require significantly higher temperatures and pressures - and therefore more energy. In addition, not every type of lignin could be used, especially not that from paper production. Zirbes and Waldvogel are now splitting lignin with an electric current. For this reaction process, the researchers dissolved lignin from wood production in caustic soda and water and heated it to around 160 degrees Celsius. As the researchers report, although the amount of vanillin obtained was not abundant, it was produced without any harmful by-products.
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