An efficient woody biomass degradation method for the production of vanillin and vanillic acid with copper oxide-peroxide under alkali condition by microwave heating was developed in our previous study.1) Herein, the thermal distribution in this reaction system was analyzed to clarify the heating behavior of microwave heating. The permittivity and loss factors of reaction mixture (2M sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution, woody powders, and copper oxide powder), NaOH solution, copper oxide powder were measured, respectively. The thermal distribution was simulated by a designed model based on the permittivity values. The simulation results revealed that microwave frequency affects the vanillin and vanillic acid production yield. The microwave frequency dependence on reaction yields was confirmed by wood degradation experiments.
