**Acknowledgements**

This work was supported by FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal) by financing the: Forest Research Center (UIDB/00239/2020), Acacia4FirePrev (PCIF/GVB/0145/2018) and CleanForest (PCIF/GVB/0167/2018) projects. Ana Lourenço was supported by FCT through a research contract (DL 57/2016/CP1382/ CT0007). The authors also acknowledge the COST Action CA17128 "Establishment of *Lignin as Feedstock for Nanoparticles Production DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109267*

a Pan-European Network on the Sustainable Valorisation of Lignin (LignoCOST, https://lignocost.eu/ (accessed on September 30, 2022))", supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) for promoting exchange and dissemination of knowledge/expertise between researchers from different countries.
