Patent ID: 8075637

Claim:
A modified lignin polymer comprising: a randomly substituted lignin backbone comprising substituted lignin monomer residues and unsubstituted lignin monomer residues, wherein at least two or more of the hydroxyl groups on the randomly substituted lignin backbone have been substituted with R substituent groups, wherein each R substituent group is independently an R substituent type selected from the group consisting of quaternary nitrogen containing substituents R 1 with a substitution weight percentage ranging from 0% to 75%, anionic substituents R 2 with a substitution weight percentage ranging from 0% to 90%, alkoxy substituents R 3 with a substitution weight percentage ranging from 0% to 90%, and combinations of any thereof, provided that the randomly substituted lignin backbone comprises at least two different R substituent types; wherein the modified lignin polymer has a weight average molecular weight ranging from 2,000 Daltons to 300,000 Daltons.