A systematic investigation of the interaction of microwave irradiation with microcrystalline cellulose has been carried out, covering a broad temperature range (150 → 270 °C). A variety of analytical techniques (e.g., HPLC, (13)C NMR, FTIR, CHN analysis, hydrogen-deuterium exchange) allowed for the analysis of the obtained liquid and solid products. Based on these results a mechanism of cellulose interaction with microwaves is proposed. Thereby the degree of freedom of the cellulose enclosed CH2OH groups was found to be crucial. This mechanism allows for the explanation of the different experimental observations such as high efficiency of microwave treatment; the dependence of the selectivity/yield of glucose on the applied microwave density; the observed high glucose to HMF ratio; and the influence of the degree of cellulose crystallinity on the results of the hydrolysis process. The highest selectivity toward glucose was found to be ~75% while the highest glucose yield obtained was 21%.

A new concept is demonstrated for an integrated close to zero waste wheat straw biorefinery combining two novel green technologies, CO 2 extraction and low temperature microwave pyrolysis, to produce a variety of products, including energy and CO 2 which can be internally recycled to sustain the processes. CO 2 adds value to the process by extracting secondary metabolites including fatty acids, wax esters and fatty alcohols. Low temperature microwave pyrolysis (<200 C) is shown to use less energy and produce higher quality oils and chars than conventional pyrolysis. The oils can be fractionated to produce either transport fuels or platform chemicals such as levoglucosan and levoglucosenone. The chars are appropriate for co-firing. The quality of the chars was improved by washing to remove the majority of the potassium and chlorine present, lowering their fouling potential. The economic feasibility of a wheat straw biorefinery is enhanced by intergrating these technologies.

We have developed a heterogeneous silica catalyst that can effectively catalyse amide synthesis from acid and amine, without production of toxic by-products and with the advantage of being readily available, low cost, environmentally benign and reusable.

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Poly­(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is a ubiquitous thermoplastic currently produced from nonrenewable fossil resources; as such, sustainable biobased routes to the key terephthalate monomer are being widely pursued. Herein is demonstrated a greener solventless route to biobased diethyl terephthalate via a one-pot heterogeneous Lewis acid catalyzed Diels–Alder addition and dehydration of 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid diethyl ester with ethylene, giving yields of terephthalate up to 59% for the key Diels–Alder addition step. A metrics-based comparison against alternative published biobased routes (available from sugars, cellulose and hemicellulose) shows that the clean synthetic pathway developed herein gives a practical atom economy, overall yield and selectivity, making it a viable alternative to routes currently under development.