The Potential of Visible Spectroscopy as a Tool for the In-Line Monitoring of Lignin Methylolation

Out of the 50 to 70 million tons of lignin that are produced annually, only 1 to 2% are used for value-added products. Currently, 90% of the total market of this compound corresponds to lignosulphonates (LS). The most successful industrial attempts to use lignin for wood adhesives rely on using it as a partial substitute in phenol–formaldehyde or urea–formaldehyde resins. However, lignin’s aromatic ring presents a low number of reactive sites. Several methods have been proposed to improve its reactivity, such as prior methylolation with formaldehyde. Off-line methods are commonly applied to monitor this reaction’s progress, but this introduces a significant delay in the analysis. This study proposes a new method for in-line monitoring of the methylolation reaction using visible spectroscopy. In order to monitor the reaction progress, principal component analysis was applied to the spectra, and the obtained scores were analyzed. When these results were plotted against those obtained by the off-line methods, a satisfactory regression was obtained at 50 °C (R2 = 0.97) and 60 °C (R2 = 0.98) for two different LS samples. Therefore, it was concluded that visible spectroscopy is a promising technique for studying lignin methylolation.