Photocatalytic pre-treatment for lignin enzymatic depolymerization

Homogeneous lignin fractions coming from industrial ultrafiltration processes were subjected to a photocatalytic oxidation process in order to reduce their molecular weight and produce more accessible substrates for the following enzymatic treatment. Early results indicate that due to the effectiveness of the photocatalytic step which accounts for a reduction of the mean molecular weight of treated lignins, the enzymatic production of small degradation compounds is favoured.