Furfural production from fruit shells by acid-catalyzed hydrolysis

Pentosans are hydrolyzed to pentoses by dilute mineral acid hydrolysis. The main source of pentosans is hemicelluloses. Furfural can be produced by the acid hydrolysis of pentosan from fruit shells such as hazelnut, sunflower, walnut, and almond of agricultural wastes. Further dehydration reactions of the pentoses yield furfural. The hydrolysis of each shell sample was carried out in dilute sulfuric acid (0.05 to 0.200 mol/l), at high temperature (450-525 K), and short reaction times (from 30 to 600 s).