Abstract
As the second most abundant biopolymer on earth, and as a resource recently becoming more available in separated and purified form on an industrial scale due to the development of new isolation technologies, lignin has a key role to play in transitioning our material industry towards sustainability. Additive manufacturing (AM), the most efficient-material processing technology to date, has likewise made great strides to promote sustainable industrial solutions to our needs in engineered products. Bringing lignin research to AM has prompted the emergence of the nascent “lignin 3D printing” field. This review presents the recent state of art of this promising field and highlights its challenges and opportunities. Following a review of the industrial availability, molecular attributes, and associated properties of technical lignins, we review R&D efforts at implementing lignin systems in extrusion-based and stereolithography (SLA) printing technologies. Doing so underlines the adage of lignin research that “all lignins are not created equal,” and stresses the opportunity nested in this chemical diversity created mostly by differences in isolation conditions to molecularly select and tune the attributes of technical lignin systems towards desirable properties, be it by modification or polymer blending. Considering the AM design process in its entirety, we finally propose onward routes to bring the full potential to this emerging field. We hope that this review can help promote the unique value and overdue industrial role of lignin in sustainable engineered materials and products.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e23431 |
| Journal | Biopolymers |
| Volume | 112 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 2021 |
Funding
M.‐P. L thanks the Sustainability Center Freiburg, as part of which the pilot project “Nutzung von Lignin als Ausgangsmaterial für einen biologisch basierten Kunststoff” was conducted. The Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden‐Württemberg, Germany, is also gratefully acknowledged for financial support of this pilot project. S.C.C acknowledges support from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Federal Appropriations under Project PEN04671 and Accession number 1017582. A.K.N acknowledges support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under contract DE‐AC05‐00OR22725, through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, BioEnergy Technologies Office Program. This manuscript has been coauthored by UT‐Battelle, LLC, under contract DE‐AC05‐00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The U.S. Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid‐up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ). Leistungszentrum Nachhaltigkeit Freiburg and the affiliated pilot project “Nutzung von Lignin als Ausgangsmaterial für einen biologisch basierten Kunststoff” was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden‐Württemberg; U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under contract DE‐AC05‐00OR22725, through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, BioEnergy Technologies Office Program; USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Federal Appropriations under Project PEN04671 and Accession number 1017582; BioEnergy Technologies Office; Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy; U.S. Department of Energy, Grant/Award Number: DE‐AC05‐00OR22725; USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Federal Appropriations, Grant/Award Number: PEN04671 Funding information M.-P. L thanks the Sustainability Center Freiburg, as part of which the pilot project ?Nutzung von Lignin als Ausgangsmaterial f?r einen biologisch basierten Kunststoff? was conducted. The Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-W?rttemberg, Germany, is also gratefully acknowledged for financial support of this pilot project. S.C.C acknowledges support from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Federal Appropriations under Project PEN04671 and Accession number 1017582. A.K.N acknowledges support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725, through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, BioEnergy Technologies Office Program. This manuscript has been coauthored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The U.S. Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| BioEnergy Technologies | |
| DOE Public Access Plan | |
| Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts | |
| Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden‐Württemberg | |
| Sustainability Center Freiburg | |
| U.S. Government | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | DE‐AC05‐00OR22725 |
| National Institute of Food and Agriculture | PEN04671, 1017582 |
| Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy | |
| Bioenergy Technologies Office | |
| UT-Battelle |
Keywords
- 3D printing
- additive manufacturing
- extrusion-based printing
- lignin
- stereolithography
