Pulping black liquor is a serious source of water pollution worldwide, which is very difficult to subsequently treat. Lignin is the main component of the black liquor and is the only natural aromatic recyclable resource, which is burnt as waste in the Kraft pulping industry. Designing an efficient lignin conversion catalyst that suitable for the strong alkaline environment of black liquor harbors tremendous carbon-neutral potential but still remains a scientific and technological challenge. In this work, the strong alkaline environment of black liquor was simulated, and low-cost pretreated Ni/AC catalysts were adopted to the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of a lignin model (guaiacol), and a breakthrough was achieved in the efficient transformation of lignin compound into hydrocarbons. By multitechniques, (e.g., FT-IR, XPS, Boehm titration, HRTEM), the relevance between introducing functional acid groups and the surface properties of catalysts was revealed. It is found that the increased acidic groups are responsible for the enhanced C_(sp2)-O cleavage reactions, while improving the dispersion of Ni NPs and thus enhance the HDO efficiency. It is worth noting that better selectivity of benzene and lower hydrogen consumption are achieved on Ni/NOAC during the HDO process. Furthermore, the reaction routes of guaiacol on catalysts with different functional acid groups were proposed. This work provides guidance for efficient utilization of lignin in waste black liquor, and is of great significance to the development of sustainable carbon-neutral biorefinery and environmental protection.

制浆黑液是世界范围内严重的水污染源，后续处理非常困难。木质素是黑液的主要成分，是唯一的天然芳香族可回收资源，在牛皮纸制浆工业中作为废物焚烧。设计一种适用于黑液强碱性环境的高效木质素转化催化剂具有巨大的碳中和潜力，但仍是一项科技挑战。本工作模拟黑液强碱性环境，采用低成本预处理的Ni/AC催化剂对木质素模型（愈创木酚）进行加氢脱氧（HDO），实现木质素高效转化的突破。合成碳氢化合物。通过多种技术（例如，FT-IR、XPS、Boehm 滴定、HRTEM），揭示了引入官能酸基团与催化剂表面性质之间的相关性。发现增加的酸性基团是增强C的原因_(sp2) -O 裂解反应，同时改善 Ni NPs 的分散性，从而提高 HDO 效率。值得注意的是，在 HDO 过程中，Ni/NOAC 实现了更好的苯选择性和更低的氢气消耗。此外，还提出了愈创木酚在不同官能酸基团催化剂上的反应路线。该工作为废黑液中木质素的高效利用提供指导，对发展可持续的碳中和生物炼制和环境保护具有重要意义。