Microwave pre-treatment of woody biomass may be the key to unlocking an energy efficient process for the production of renewable chemicals and fuels. Here we investigated the dipolar polarisation mechanism of polar solvents, ranging from dilute aqueous solutions of ethylene glycol, isopropyl alcohol, formaldehyde and water-only, to improve the efficiency of MW pre-treatment of woody biomass. The optimal conditions were 3.7 wt% FA solution for 10 min at 180 °C, where heating rate was accelerated by 50%, saccharification of biomass increased by 56% and stabilised lignin monomers were produced compared to water-only. Autoclave pre-treatment of woody biomass released 3 to 6 times less sugar yield in the presence of water-only and 3.7 wt% FA compared to MW irradiation. Our efficient method can potentially produce three streams of building blocks – cellulose fibres, solvated hemicellulose and stabilised lignin – for transformation into renewable products.

木质生物质的微波预处理可能是开启生产可再生化学品和燃料的节能工艺的关键。在这里，我们研究了极性溶剂的偶极极化机制，包括乙二醇、异丙醇、甲醛和纯水的稀水溶液，以提高木质生物质的 MW 预处理效率。最佳条件为10分钟3.7％（重量）FA溶液在180℃下，在加热速率为50％，的糖化biomas加速小号与仅用水相比，增加了 56%，并且产生了稳定的木质素单体。与 MW 辐射相比，在仅存在水和 3.7 wt% FA 的情况下，木质生物质的高压釜预处理释放的糖产量少 3 到 6 倍。我们的有效方法可能会产生三种结构单元流——纤维素纤维、溶剂化半纤维素和稳定木质素——用于转化为可再生产品。