Strategy to scale up microwave synthesis with insight into the thermal and non-thermal effects from energy-based perspective

A strategy to industrialize microwave synthesis from the perspectives of process optimization, scale up and reactor design was devised for the synthesis of glycerol carbonate (GC). The strategy is based on the application of absorbed energy density (AED) and absorbed power density (APD) parameters. Here, the microwave synthesis was conducted using a constant-power heating mode. The mapping of microwave heating characteristics based on heating power, reaction temperature and AED was first performed for the microwave system. Then, the optimization of APD and AED was conducted and the intensive optimum conditions at 175 J/g AED and 1.9 W/g APD was used to scale up the microwave synthesis from 0.3 mol (27 g) to 3 mol (267 g). The resulting syntheses were highly reproducible and consistent. Based on APD and AED, the thermal and non-thermal microwave effects can be characterized and they are useful in the design of continuous-flow microwave reactor.