Inside Cover: Catalytic Biorefining of Plant Biomass to Non-Pyrolytic Lignin Bio-Oil and Carbohydrates through Hydrogen Transfer Reactions (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 33/2014).

Lignin solvolytically released from biomass may be of much lower molecular weights than currently believed. In their Communication on page 8634 ff., R. Rinaldi and P. Ferrini exploit this feature for establishing a method that enables the isolation of lignin as a depolymerized oil and yields pulps amenable to enzymatic hydrolysis. The lignin oil is highly susceptible to hydrogenation under mild conditions, and therefore, a unique pathway for lignin valorization by heterogeneous catalysis has been established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]