Microwave irradiation can facilitate the dissolution and delignification of lignocelluloses in ionic liquids compared to simple oil bath heating as demonstrated here where 92.5% of 0.5 g ground southern yellow pine was dissolved in 10 g 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate using microwave irradiation in only 4 min. Cellulose-rich material (pulp) regenerated from the wood/ionic liquid solution had a lignin content of similar to 10%; significantly lower than the lignin content of the original wood (31.9%) or that of pulp obtained from the same experiment but using 16 h of oil bath heating (16-24%). The 10% lignin content obtained with the microwave method was close to that of pulp obtained from the oil bath heating method when polyoxometalate catalysts were used (5-9%). (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.