From waste to wealth using green chemistry

Clark, James H.; Pfaltzgraff, Lucie A.; Budarin, Vitaliy L.; Hunt, Andrew J.; Gronnow, Mark; Matharu, Avtar S.; Macquarrie, Duncan J.; Sherwood, James R.

doi:10.1351/PAC-CON-12-09-01

Pure Appl. Chem., 2013, Vol. 85, No. 8, pp. 1625-1631

http://dx.doi.org/10.1351/PAC-CON-12-09-01

Published online 2013-03-27

From waste to wealth using green chemistry

James H. Clark*, Lucie A. Pfaltzgraff, Vitaliy L. Budarin, Andrew J. Hunt, Mark Gronnow, Avtar S. Matharu, Duncan J. Macquarrie and James R. Sherwood

Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK

Abstract: The availability of chemically rich food supply chain waste (FSCW) gives it considerable potential as a resource for the manufacture of chemicals including materials and fuels. By applying clean chemical technologies to the extraction and conversion of molecules from FSCW, we can aim to produce genuinely green and sustainable products to help meet the legislative and consumer-oriented demands of a sustainable society. Low-temperature microwave (MW) processing is a particularly powerful technology to achieve this aim and is shown to be effective for several different high-volume, geographically diverse biomass types.