Mass Transfer in the Processes of Native Lignin Oxidation into Vanillin via Oxygen

Abstract

The influence of mass transfer intensity on the kinetics of the catalytic oxidation of flax shives with oxygen in alkaline media to aromatic aldehydes and pulp was studied. The process was carried out in two autoclaves, with moderate stirring (stirrer engine of 8 W) and intense stirring (stirrer engine of 200 W). The oxidation of flax shives into vanillin, syringaldehyde, and pulp was shown to proceed as a completely diffusion-controlled process under the studied conditions, both moderate and intense stirring. Depending on the process conditions, it can be limited by stages of oxygen transfer through the diffusion boundary layer near the gas–liquid interface (low intensity of mass transfer) as well as by reagents’ inner diffusion in the porous and solid matter of the flax shive particle (high intensity of mass transfer). The results on the influence of the stirring speed and volume of the reaction mass on the rates of oxygen consumption and vanillin accumulation were obtained. They were described using a known simple model connecting the intensity of mass transfer and the stirring power density in the bulk of the liquid phase in terms of algebra equations.