Kinetics of furfural destruction in a formic acid medium

Furfural is one of the key chemicals produced from hemicellulose pentosans in acidic conditions. In the same conditions, furfural also undergoes degradation reactions leading to yield loss. In this study, the kinetics of furfural degradation in a formic acid medium containing 2 to 30% (w/w) formic acid and 0.05 to 0.16 mol L-1 furfural was studied in small batch reactors. The reaction temperatures were 160, 180, and 200 degrees C. The results showed that the overall order of the reaction changes with the amount of formic acid catalyst: in high acid concentration (30%) the apparent order of reaction is over one and in low acid concentration (2%) the order of reaction is below one. The proposed kinetic model, which includes an uncatalysed and an acid-catalysed term, is capable of estimating this behaviour. The model and findings presented in this study can support the optimisation of furfural production conditions.