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The conversion of plant biomass-based solid wastes in pressurized hot water is a promising method by which to obtain certain chemicals, e.g. sugars and furfurals. However, it is relatively difficult to optimize reactions in pressurized hot water, that is, the so-called hydrothermal reaction process, because the reactions have less selectivity than other conversion methods and involve a significant number of paths. It is therefore highly desirable to achieve a greater understanding of the reaction mechanisms and kinetics of plant biomass under hydrothermal conditions. This paper discusses the application of novel liquid-phase thermogravimetry to investigate the reaction kinetics of some existing plant biomass-based solid wastes, such as old newspaper, rice husk and spent malt from a brewery, under hydrothermal conditions. This thermogravimetric measuring system is equipped with a magnetic suspension balance that can measure the weighing force without direct contact between the sample load cage and the main body of the balance, and is thus able to observe the weight decay in the liquid phase over a temperature range up to 300 °C at 10 MPa. Kinetic parameters for the hydrothermal reaction of the biomass-based materials were successfully determined through analysis of the obtained gravimetric data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]