There’s a century-old adage coined by the paper industry that claims “you can make anything from lignin except a profit.”

Art Ragauskas has heard this maxim countless times during his career, and it gets him a little riled up every time he hears it. As the UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair for Biorefining, Ragauskas is channeling that ire into proving that the old saying’s time has come and gone.

Lignin and its companion sibling cellulose reside side by side in the cell walls of poplar trees, switchgrass, and the residues of harvested crops—materials known as biomass.

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