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• n  a complex polymer; the chief constituent of wood other than carbohydrates; binds to cellulose fibers to harden and strengthen cell walls of plants

• One big hope: turning lignin the noncellulose element that constitutes 25% of a tree into derivatives ranging from ersatz foam rubber to a substitute for carbon black in .
• By heating cellulose and: water or lignin and water, lie produced coal.
• When heat is applied to natural lignin and cellulose, they give off combustible gases that form flames and spread the fire by heating more wood.

News & Articles

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• Green Chemists Synthesise Vanillin From Sawdust
  An environmentally-friendly way of making vanillin from the lignin in wood pulp could change the economics of this flavouring industry
  June 17, 2013 - Technology Review

Quotes

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• Raymond Rogers in BBC News
  We're hoping that we'll find individual bacterial genes that are secreting enzymes into the insect gut that are better for removing lignin to make the cellulose more accessible than currently. If we do find that, that will make the ease and the... John Carlson http://www.google.com/url?q=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carlson&source=dictionary&usg=AFQjCNE-cxog87RPvzn-gfxYPfkPNV45LQ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (registration) http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx%3Fid%3D696771&source=dictionary&usg=AFQjCNEu6vPoIxphXfgnoFCMBD8p8HgRIQ Dec 16, 2007 58279 77572 lignin The fact that vanillin cannot be detected in the lignin on shroud fibres, Dead Sea scrolls linen and other very old linens indicates that the shroud is quite old," Mr Rogers writes. "A determination of the kinetics of vanillin loss suggests...