Waste biomass as a raw material for furfural production

Abstract

In this paper, studies on transformation of various types of waste biomass into furfural by acidic hydrolysis were presented. Among the studied groups of biomass, agro-food industry waste, brewing, sugar, mill industry as well as greenery and municipal bio-waste can be distinguished. Furfural in the form of water solution was obtained by the addition of concentrated H2SO4. The amount of obtained furfural was 0.12-4.20 %(w/w),based on the dry weight of the sample subjected to hydrolysis. The yields of furfural strongly depended on the type of biomass used in the processes. Water solutions of furfural, condensates without any purification, were used in the catalytic reduction processes over 5 %Pd/Al2O3 catalyst. Furfuryl alcohol and tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol were the only products of reactions of furfural reduction carried out at the temperature of 90 °C and under the pressure of 20 bar of H2. Furthermore, it was concluded that the presence of other compounds in condensates inhibited the reduction of the double bond in the ring of furfural and that the main product of the reaction was furfuryl alcohol.

Keywords

• waste biomass
• furfural
• furfuryl alcohol
• tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol