A high-yield process for converting
lignin into reformulated, partially oxygenated
gasoline compositions of high quality is provided. The process is a two-stage catalytic reaction process that produces a reformulated, partially oxygenated
gasoline product with a controlled amount of aromatics. In the first stage of the process, a
lignin feed material is subjected to a base-catalyzed
depolymerization reaction, followed by a selective hydrocracking reaction which utilizes a
superacid catalyst to produce a
high oxygen-content depolymerized
lignin product mainly composed of alkylated
phenols, alkylated alkoxyphenols, and
alkylbenzenes. In the second stage of the process, the depolymerized lignin product is subjected to an exhaustive etherification reaction, optionally followed by a partial ring
hydrogenation reaction, to produce a reformulated, partially oxygenated / etherified
gasoline product, which includes a mixture of substituted phenyl / methyl ethers, cycloalkyl methyl ethers, C7-C10
alkylbenzenes, C6-C10 branched and multibranched paraffins, and alkylated and polyalkylated cycloalkanes.