The conversion of lignin into aromatics as commodity chemicals and high-quality fuels is a highly desirable goal for biorefineries. However, the presence of robust inter-unit carbon–carbon (C–C) bonds in natural lignin seriously impedes this process. Herein, for the first time, we report the selective cleavage of C–C bonds in β-O-4 and β-1 linkages catalyzed by cheap copper and a base to yield aromatic acids and phenols in excellent yields in water at 30 °C under air without the need for additional complex ligands. Isotope-labeling experiments show that a base-mediated C_β–H bond cleavage is the rate-determining step for C_α–C_β bond cleavage. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest that the oxidation of β-O-4 ketone to a key intermediate, i.e., a peroxide, by copper and O₂ lowers the C_α–C_β bond dissociation energy and facilitates its subsequent cleavage. In addition, the catalytic system could be successfully applied to the depolymerization of various authentic lignin feedstocks, affording excellent yields of aromatic compounds and high selectivity of a single monomer. This study offers the potential to economically produce aromatic chemicals from biomass.

Aromatics and cyclic-hydrocarbons are the significant components of jet fuel with high energy-density. However, conventional technologies for bio-fuel production cannot produce these products without further aromatization and isomerization. In this work, renewable liquid fuel with high content of aromatics and cyclic-hydrocarbons was obtained through aqueous catalytic conversion of biomass sorbitol over Ni-HZSM-5/SBA-15 catalyst. Texture characteristics of the catalyst were determined by physisorption of N2, which indicated its bimodal pore structures were microporous (HZSM-5, pore width: 0.56 nm) and mesoporous (SBA-15, pore width: 8 nm). The surface acidity included weak and strong acid sites, predominantly Lewis type, and was further confirmed by the NH3-TPD and Py-IR analysis. The catalytic performances were tested in a fixed-bed reactor under the conditions of 593 K, WHSV of 0.75 h−1, GHSV of 2500 h−1 and 4.0 MPa of hydrogen pressure, whereby oil yield of 40.4 wt. % with aromatics and cyclic-hydrocarbons content of 80.0% was obtained.