lignin sulfonate

American  

noun

Chemistry.

1. a brown powder consisting of a sulfonate salt made from waste liquor of the sulfate pulping process of soft wood: used in concrete, leather tanning, as an additive in oil-well drilling mud, and as a source of vanillin.

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Example Sentences

While most of the two countries’ organic standards are the same, Japan has not allowed its organics to be produced with lignin sulfonate, a substance used in post-harvest fruit production, or alkali-extracted humic acid, a fertilizer used to help grow a variety of organic crops.

From Time

Today, after 15 years of research costing some $2,000,000, Marathon adds lime to its waste liquors, precipitates out calcium lignin sulfonate, turns it into: >Vanillin, the flavor constituent of vanilla.

From Time Magazine Archive