Microwave Digestion Archive

Environmental laboratories are under growing pressure to deliver high-quality PFAS data while keeping pace with rising sample volumes, labor shortages, and increasingly complex regulatory requirements. Among the most challenging tasks is the extraction of PFAS compounds from solid matrices such as soils, sediments, and biosolids, an essential but time-consuming step that directly affects analytical quality and turnaround time. A new application study demonstrates that the Milestone ETHOS X microwave extraction system, equipped with the XTR-44 rotor, provides a powerful alternative to the traditional shaker-table extraction method described in EPA 1633A. The research, carried out by Advanced Environmental Laboratories (AEL), compares conventional extraction with microwave-assisted extraction, highlighting major gains in efficiency, consistency, and analytical performance.

This groundbreaking research compares conventional AOCS methods with microwave-assisted techniques for determining Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAMEs) in food matrices. The goal is to evaluate the effectiveness, safety, and efficiency of Milestone’s ETHOS X microwave-assisted technology against standard AOCS methods (Ce 2b-11 and Ce 2c-11).

The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) project team recently published a comprehensive study on the field. 2 It was carried out on behalf of Department of environment, food and rural affair (DEFRA) with the aim to detect and quantify the occurrence of different type of microplastic in UK river and sediments, including the assessment of TWP though an indirect quantification of 6-PPD, which was chose a a molecular marker due to its particular chemical structure and persistency in the environment. Microwave assisted extraction (MAE) proved to be a reliable and effective technique to obtain extraction of those types of additives from the treated sediments and soils. To perform MAE, the group of research used Milestone’s ETHOS X benchtop microwave extraction system with fastEX 24 eT rotor.

Mineral oil hydrocarbons are a growing concern pollutant in food quality control. Microwave-assisted solvent extraction is a well-established sample preparation technique and offers a reliable and efficient approach to their extraction.

Saponification number in oils measures the amount of alkali required to convert fats into soap and it is a crucial parameter for formulation of industrial or artisanal soap. Microwave assisted solvent extraction is a well-established sample preparation technique and offers a reliable and efficient approach for its quantification. Milestone ETHOS X equipped with fastEX-24 eT rotor was used in this study to demonstrate its effectiveness in comparison with official ISO 3657:2020 method and European Pharmacopoeia.

Craft beer has an ever-increasing importance in the current market and the type of product offered can determine the market response. Microwave extractors for the food sector can bring great innovation to the beer production sector. We interviewed Dr. Nicola Grande, a master brewer, about this.

Discover the 2 new microwave protocols developed by Milestone, that have as ultimate target FAME analysis enabling, during the preparation process, a sequential determination of total fat (Method A) and free fat (Method B).

Food products are routinely analyzed to determine their composition in saturated and unsaturated fatty acids to communicate their nutritional value, monitor their quality and origin, and confirm the absence of TFAs In cooperation with Gembloux Agro-Bio-Tech, University of Liège, Belgium, a new and accurate method was developed for preparing FAMEs from a wide variety of foodstuff using a single-step microwave-assisted extraction and derivatization coupled with GC×GC analysis to identify and quantify the individual fatty acid. Results was also compared with those from two different official FAMEs preparations: AOCS Official Method Ce 2b-11 and Cruz-Hernandez et al. J AOAC Int 87(2) 2004 545.

In this case study, you can read how ACEA (acronym for Municipal Energy and Environment Company) gained advantages in terms of time-saving, application capabilities, maintenance costs and productivity on any kind of matrix, when adopting Milestone’s microwave technology instead of conventional extraction techniques