In the broadest vision to contribute to sustainability, with focus on the use of lignin as a sustainable source for the production of chemicals, experiments were performed to find which chemicals may potentially be produced from isolated (organosolv-extracted) lignin through its decomposition by hydrodeoxygenation, as well as to describe the properties and composition of the product as a whole. Catalyst screening was implemented to evaluate the optimal catalyst to obtain low molecular weight organic compounds.

The catalyst screening results of the light bio-oil reaction product fraction showed lowest molecular weights for the experiment involving the Pd/C 3% catalyst with values of 363.4 g/mol of number average and 583.9 g/mol of weight average, as well as fraction of light (monomers and dimers) compounds of 24.1%. The experiment involving the Pd/Al2O3 5% showed the highest molecular weights and lowest light compounds fraction.

Regarding the gas product, the experiment involving the Pd/Al2O3 5% catalyst exhibited a considerably high amount of methane, and a considerably low amount of hydrogen concentration compared to the other experiments.

In regards to the mass balance of the product streams excluding the gas phase, the Pd/Al2O3 5% catalyst showed the highest amount of light bio-oil, however, also the highest amount of char. On the other hand, the lowest amounts of both light bio-oil and char belonged to the experiment involving the Pd/C 3% catalyst.

GC-MS analysis was performed to identify 24 small molecular weight compounds. The most representative compounds for the experiments involving the Pd/C 3%, ZrO2, and Pd/Al2O3 5% catalysts were 4-propylsyiringol, trans-4-propenylsyringol, and dihydrosinapyl alcohol, respectively.