Jeffrey J. E. Hardy

Green chemistry and the biorefinery: a partnership for a sustainable future

Research into renewable bioresources at York and elsewhere is demonstrating that by applying green chemical technologies to the transformation of typically low value and widely available biomass feedstocks, including wastes, we can build up new environmentally compatible and sustainable chemicals and materials industries for the 21st century. Current research includes the benign extraction of valuable secondary metabolites from agricultural co-products and other low value biomass, the conversion of natures primary metabolites into speciality materials and into bioplatform molecules, as well as the green chemical transformations of those platform molecules. Key drivers for the adoption of biorefinery technologies will come from all stages in the chemical product lifecycle (reducing the use of non-renewable fossil resources, cleaner and safer chemical manufacturing, and legislative and consumer requirements for products), but also from the renewable energy industries (adding value to biofuels through the utilisation of the chemical value of by-products) and the food industries (realising the potential chemical value of wastes at all stages in the food product lifecycle).

Chitosan-based heterogeneous catalysts for Suzuki and Heck reactions

Novel supported palladium catalysts have been developed based on chitosan as a support. These catalysts display excellent activity in the Suzuki and Heck reactions.

The fractionation of valuable wax products from wheat straw using CO2

Liquid and supercritical CO2 have been used for the first time to achieve direct isolation of valuable wax products from wheat straw (J. H. Clark, F. E. I. Deswarte and J. J. E. Hardy, PCT Pat. Appl., PCT/GB 0502337.9, 2005).

The use of Reichardt's dye as an indicator of surface polarity

Reichardts dye can be used to determine the surface characteristics of a range of inorganic and organic materials. This simple, rapid technique gives information regarding the polarity of the surface.

Delicious not siliceous: expanded carbohydrates as renewable separation media for column chromatography

Expansion of native corn starch produces a high surface area mesoporous material capable of acting as a novel stationary phase for separating various mixtures of compounds.

Novel starch-polyalkane composite materials

The polymerisation of dibromoalkanes adsorbed in potato starch leads to a novel class of hydrophobic starch-polyalkane composite materials with very high capacity for surface derivitisation.