Kinetics of Xylose Dehydrationinto Furfural in FormicAcid.

In this study, kinetics of formic acid-catalyzed xylosedehydrationinto furfural and furfural decomposition was investigated using batchexperiments within a temperature range of 130–200 °C.Initial xylose and furfural concentrations up to 0.2 and 0.08 mol/L,respectively, were used. The room temperature pH of the formic acidcatalyst solution was between 0.9 and 1.7. The kinetic model usedwas based on a specific acid catalysis model and included the prevailinghydrogen ion concentration in reaction conditions. The study showedthat the modeling must account for other reactions for xylose besidesdehydration into furfural. Moreover, the reactions between xyloseintermediate and furfural play only a minor role. The study also showedthat kinetic modeling of xylose and furfural decomposition reactionsmust take the uncatalyzed reaction in water solvent into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]