Mild degradation of corncob extraction residue in a novel sodium metavanadate and aqueous hydrogen peroxide/acetic anhydride system for monophenolic compounds

[Display omitted] •The synergistic effect of SM and AHPO/AAH increased the YSP of CCER degradation to 97.71%.•The SM-AHPO/AAH system promotes lignin C-O bond breakage to obtain MCPs.•Other lignin-rich biomasses verified the effectiveness of the SM-AHPO/AAH system.•The synergistic effect of SM-AHPO/AAH produces a peroxide chain that plays a major role. A novel sodium metavanadate and aqueous hydrogen peroxide/acetic anhydride system, was used to convert corncob extraction residue (CCER) for producing monophenolic compounds (MPCs). The system demonstrates excellent performance for producing MPCs in a high yield from CCER and CCER conversion to soluble portion (SP) is ca. 97.7 wt%. According to multiple analyses the SP is rich in aromatics. The system is also effective for oxidatively degrading other lignin-rich raw materials to produce aromatics as the main products. In the initial step, H2O2 breaks a >C-O- bond in a peroxy chain of lignin structure to produce phenylpropanoid, followed by H2O2 attacking Cβ and Cα to produce H, G, and S-type aromatics.