Valorization of native birch wood lignin into monomeric phenols over nickel-based catalysts has been studied. High chemoselectivity to aromatic products was achieved by using Ni-based catalysts and common alcohols as solvents. The results show that lignin can be selectively cleaved into propylguaiacol and propylsyringol with total selectivity >90% at a lignin conversion of about 50%. Alcohols, such as methanol, ethanol and ethylene glycol, are suitable solvents for lignin conversion. Analyses with MALDI-TOF and NMR show that birch lignin is first fragmented into smaller lignin species consisting of several benzene rings with a molecular weight of m/z ca. 1100 to ca. 1600 via alcoholysis reaction. The second step involves the hydrogenolysis of the fragments into phenols. The presence of gaseous H 2 has no effect on lignin conversion, indicating that alcohols provide active hydrogen species, which is further confirmed by isotopic tracing experiments. Catalysts are recycled by magnetic separation and can be reused four times without losing activity. The mechanistic insights from this work could be helpful in understanding native lignin conversion and the formation of monomeric phenolics via reductive depolymerization. Broader contextNature efficiently synthesizes aromatic structures and deposits them as lignin in plants. Incorporation of catalytic technologies into lignin conversion is a possible option for valorizing the feedstock as a renewable raw material for aromatic chemical production. Use of heterogeneous catalysts facilitates separation and recycling, and has attracted great attention. However, the detailed chemistry between solid catalysts and solid feedstocks still remains unknown because of mass transfer limitations. Herein we report the valorization of native birch wood lignin into monomeric phenols over nickel-based catalysts. High chemoselectivity to aromatic products was achieved by using Ni-based catalysts and common alcohols as solvents. The results show that lignin can be selectively cleaved into propylguaiacol and propylsyringol with total selectivity >90% at a lignin conversion of about 50%. Analysis results show that birch lignin is rst fragmented into smaller lignin species consisting of several benzene rings with a molecular weight of m/z ca. 1100 to ca. 1600 via alcoholysis reaction. The second step involves the hydrogenolysis of the fragments into phenols. This study will greatly contribute to the understanding of the lignin depolymerization reaction and will be interesting for other biomass conversion.

This review highlights recent advances in photocatalytic transformations of lignocellulosic biomass (polysaccharides and lignin) into chemicals (in particular organic oxygenates).