Researchers have developed a sustainable, inexpensive two-step process that can upcycle organic carbon waste — including lignin, a difficult-to-breakdown material that gives plants their structure. By processing waste through a microbe-driven biorefinery, the researchers turned lignin into carbon sources that could be used in high-value, plant-derived pharmaceuticals and antioxidant nutraceuticals as well as carbon-based nanoparticles for drug or chemical delivery.
