Abstract
Catalytic conversion of carbohydrates into value-added products and platform chemicals became a trend in recent years. Microwave activation used in the processes of carbohydrate conversion coupled with the proper choice of catalysts makes it possible to enhance dramatically the efficiency and sometimes the selectivity of catalysts. This mini-review presents a brief literature survey related to state-of-the-art methods developed recently by the world research community to solve the problem of rational conversion of carbohydrates, mostly produced from natural resources and wastes (forestry and agriculture wastes) including production of hydrogen, synthesis gas, furanics, and alcohols. The focus is made on microwave technologies used for processing carbohydrates. Of particular interest is the use of heterogeneous catalysts and hybrid materials in processing carbohydrates.
Highlights
Conversion of carbohydrates produced from biomass into value-added products and platform chemicals recently became a global challenge [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
The barriers to overcome on the way to industrial application of microwave irradiation in such catalytic processes are related to the problem of scaling up
Microcrystalline cellulose is transformed with the yield of 100% into glucose under microwave treatment with NaOH serving as a catalyst [32] (Scheme 4)
Summary
Conversion of carbohydrates produced from biomass into value-added products and platform chemicals recently became a global challenge [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. The majority of results available in the literature on the microwave effects in the catalytic processes of carbohydrates conversion provides a convincing evidence that microwave activation can enhance the reaction rate and change the product selectivities, while decreasing the reaction temperature [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. In mastering the technology for microwave -assisted carbohydrates processing, one should consider that components of biowastes and most products (liquid or gaseous) are not absorbing the microwave irradiation, so the only option is to use the catalysts that are capable of strongly interacting with the microwave radiation. This will create superheated regions (hot spots) only in the volume or on the surface of the active catalyst phase This provides the possibility of eliminating side reactions and suppressing energy expenses for heating inert materials that do not participate in the catalytic process. A metallic component activates the initial molecule via breaking bonds and/or charge transfer (dehydrogenation, hydrogenolysis), whereas other transformations (alkylation, isomerization) occur on acid/basic centers
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
