Furfural stability in various conditions

Abstract

The topic of this thesis is the study of the furfural stability to determine the influence of some conditions in furfural degradation. The aim of the study is to decrease furfural degradation and thus improve furfural yield in furfural production. The thesis consists of a literature review and laboratory experiments. Attention has been paid to the furfural description and properties as well as the background of the research and traditional methods to produce furfural. In the experiments, with a batch reactor, the reaction conditions, i.e. temperature, the furfural concentration, the presence of a catalyst in different concentrations and the reaction time, have been modified. On the basis of the furfural conversion the effect of each variable could be determined. Liquid chromatography was used to identify the amount of furfural present in each sample. Based on the results, it can be stated that the presence of an acid and temperature variations affect most strongly on furfural conversions. However, the concentration of furfural in the system does not have an effect on furfural conversion. According to the experimental results, to achieve a low degradation of furfural, the best conditions are low temperatures in solutions without catalyst present and short reaction times. It is recommended that experiments at higher temperatures are further explored because in the conditions examined the entropy effect was not appreciated. Place of