Diment Daryna: Innovative Net-Zero Carbon Wood-Based Products with Superior Properties through Green Integrated Biorefineries: 5000 eur
Lignin and lignin–carbohydrate complexes (LCCs) are currently highly underutilized and are often regarded as unwanted by-products of biomass processing. In contrast to conventional approaches that rely on tedious, energy-intensive separation steps and the use of toxic chemicals, my research introduces a sustainable method that employes the naturally inhereted benefits of LCCs directly, without biomass fractionation or environmentally harmful reagents. This approach enables the production of net-zero-carbon, fully bio-based materials that can replace fossil-derived alternatives, while matching or even surpassing their performance.
The results of this work are currently being accepted for publication in ChemSusChem and are under production office revision (Diment, Daryna; Cho, Mijung; Rigo, Davide; Hummel, Michael. 2025. Fractionation of AqSO biorefinery lignins and their application in antioxidant and UV protective films. ChemSusChem, p. e202501985. DOI: 10.1002/cssc.202501985). The study presents an easily scalable and user-friendly strategy for selectively utilizing LCCs in the fabrication of UV-protective films with advanced antioxidant properties. These materials show strong potential for smart packaging applications, where they can extend product shelf life while offering a biodegradable and environmentally benign solution.
The support provided by the Walter Ahlström Foundation enabled a significant advancement of this research by expanding the application potential of lignin-based, net-zero-carbon materials through the evaluation of their sun protection factor (SPF). Remarkably, the incorporation of only 1.5% of LCCs into the formulation was sufficient to block up to 92% of UV radiation, corresponding to an SPF value of 12. This finding substantially enhanced the scientific and practical relevance of LCCs as irreplaceable bio-based building blocks and broadened their potential application landscape to include cosmetic formulations, where LCCs offer significant functional and sustainability advantages over oxybenzone- and octinoxatein-containing sunscreens that are linked to potential health risks, toxicity to marine life, and long-term environmental accumulation. While lignin/LCC-based sunscreens can be used without any environmental concern yet providing reliable and strong protection from UV rays simultaneously offering high anti-aging effects through high antioxidant action. This discovery, also, paving the way for the use of lignin and LCCs as UV stabilizers and pigments in thermoplastics. Overall, this work substantially advances the perception and value of lignin and LCCs as high performance, sustainable, net-zero carbon bio-based materials.
Figure 1. The concept of the work: production of wood-based net-zero carbon products through integrated biorfineries
Figure 2. The explanation of the net-zero carbon concept and its environmental importance
Figure 3. The flowchart demonstrating the production of net-zero carbon fully bio-based UV protective films with advanced antioxidant properties.1
References:
1. Diment, Daryna; Cho, Mijung; Rigo, Davide; Hummel, Michael. 2025. Fractionation of AqSO biorefinery lignins and their application in antioxidant and UV-protective films. ChemSusChem, p. e202501985. DOI: 10.1002/cssc.202501985.