Hydrothermal conversion of cellulose leads to H/C and O/C ratios close to real lignite.
Leaching of rhenish lignite with acids changes the oxidation temperatures.
Synthetic lignite was obtained by hydrothermal conversion of cellulose at 48 h at 200°.
Synthetic lignite has a similar oxidation profile as acid-leached rhenish lignite.
ATR-IR and NMR spectroscopy are highly useful tools to analyze synthetic and real lignites.